


Cove

by TakingOverMidnight3482



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, M/M, and fluff, klance, mermaid keith au, might change depending on how i see fit, rated T for now, she/her pronouns for pidge, so much klance, warnings for blood and swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2017-04-25
Packaged: 2018-08-29 23:35:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 42,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8509984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TakingOverMidnight3482/pseuds/TakingOverMidnight3482
Summary: "Lance tilted his head and tugged his shirt off, grimacing as it stuck to his skin. He used that to put pressure on the wound, trying to ignore the fact that he was hovering over a mythical creature—a mythical hot creature—and focusing on dialing Hunk’s number on his somehow still-functional cell phone." In which Lance falls in love with an injured merman.





	1. Night Surfing

If there was one thing that Lance really loved, it was the ocean. The way the waves churned against the sandy shore of his family's summer home, how the light bounced across the water and sent rainbows through the mist, the way the salt stung on his lips and eyes when he swam. He loved paddling out into the dusk on his surfboard, sitting with his legs crossed up under him to keep any unwanted fish away while he watched the sun dip into the world's largest bathtub.

But more than anything, Lance loved night surfing.

It was one of the most dangerous things a person could do in regards to the ocean, but he had grown up surfing every summer and had determined that the best waves came in the early morning, or maybe the late night. Whatever someone considered 3 am, that was the best time in Lance's opinion.

His friend Pidge, who lived about ten minutes from his family's summer home and who he had known since he and his family started travelling to the beach, had figured out a way to install lights onto Lance's surfboard that allowed him to see what was under him and around him. While it wasn't perfect, it kept him safer than he would be with only the moonlight to go by, and the lights were such a gorgeous blue that Lance found he could never complain.

Pidge joined him for most of his late-night surfing, claiming that she didn't want Lance to die of stupidity, and while Lance scoffed every time she showed up alongside him, he was secretly grateful to have a friend watching his back in the unlikely event that something went wrong. Pidge didn't surf, was more of a scientist than anything, and she would spend Lance's late night surf parties scouring the shore for things that she could study.

This particular night, however, Pidge was visiting her grandmother on the other side of town, and had texted Lance letting him know that she wasn't going to make it and telling him not to die. Lance appreciated the sentiment.

His only other two options were to either call their friend Hunk, who lived in town and, provided he was awake and willing, would take almost half an hour to get to the secluded beach Lance usually surfed in, or to just not surf.

Lance went with the third, more dangerous option, electing to grab his surfboard and slip out of the house with a whisper of swim trunks and the slightest jangle of keys.

The stone steps that led down to the beach were precarious at best, and despite the solar powered lights that Lance and his sister had put there at the beginning of the summer, he still took his time in climbing down them, phone flashlight trained at the chipped rock. It took almost ten minutes, but by the time his sandaled feet hit sand Lance didn't care, a smile stretching across his face as the smell of salt washed over him.

He moved quickly after that, setting his board down and flicking on its lights to illuminate what he was doing. The board was about a foot and a half taller than him, with blue and teal swirls curling over the top of it. The lights, which were almost an aquamarine color, were placed at strategic locations on each side of the board.

Lance stripped out of his shirt, tossing it impatiently into the sand and putting his phone down on top of it. He left his shoes alongside his shirt, opened his phone to the keypad just in case he had to make a quick phone call, and then picked up the modified board and trotted for the water.

He shivered as he ran in, waves caressing his ankles and sending chills up his spine that made his heart thrum in pleasure.

His first stroke out on top of the board caused his entire body to erupt in goosebumps from the cold of the water, but within moments he was basking in the feeling, night air caressing his hair and blowing it back from his face.

Lance stopped at about thirty feet out, tilting his body to a sitting position and hooking his ankles together under the board. His eyes perused the horizon, watching for a deviance in the skyline that would signal a wave. The lights warmed the board where he sat, sending glittering sparks through the water and over the fish that darted along under him.

It was peaceful. It was calm. Lance could breathe, finally breathe, and he did just that, soul fluttering in delight and a smile dancing over his lips.

That was ruined when something slammed- hard- into the bottom of Lance's board, sending his body plunging into the cold of the cove and waking him up _fast_.

He twisted in the water, lungs yelling at the unexpected swim and unprepared breath, but he ignored them for a second, struggling to find the source of the commotion. A turtle was his first guess; they were drawn to light and could get massive in the waters he surfed in.

His next guess, and his biggest concern, was a shark. They didn't frequent the cove too often, but when they did they were usually starving and coming close to shore for an easy meal. Lance knew that on the board he looked like something a shark would eat, and while he wasn't scared of them, he was worried he might get a chunk out of his arm.

The thing that flicked off to the corner of the cove, just barely lit by his board, was not a sharks tail though; sharks typically weren't blood red. Nevertheless, Lance finally relieved his lungs, pushing to the surface and straddling his board to paddle back to shore as fast as he could.

"The one-time Pidge isn't here," he grumbled in irritation.

The waves under him picked up and he relaxed, letting some of the larger ones push him back to shore and only getting off the board when he hit knee deep water. The board ground against the sand as he dragged it up the beach, hair dripping in his eyes and salt stinging at his chest, where he had gotten cut when he fell. The blood was non-existent, but Lance was curious about what had hit him.

He dropped the board next to his stuff and tugged his shirt on over his still soaked body. He hadn't brought a towel with him, never did because the walk back to his house usually dried him off enough that he didn't track seawater into the house.

Picking up his phone, Lance turned the flashlight back on and crept towards the shore, eyes scanning the incoming waves in bewilderment and trying to pick out anything unusual. The board remained on behind him, casting an eerie blue light over the cove and making Lance feel like he was being watched.

"H-hello?" he called out, feeling stupid.

No one answered, of course, and Lance scolded himself internally for thinking that someone might be there with him. The only person who might be enough of a jerk to do that was his sister Mariana, the youngest of their family at 14 years old and the second-best surfer right behind Lance. She often accompanied him and Pidge to his late-night rides, but Lance was slightly overprotective and had never actually let her surf at night.

"Mariana?" he called out, raising an eyebrow and sweeping the phone light around the area. "If that's you, you don't get a ride. Not until you're 16, I told you!"

No response came, and Lance breathed a little easier after a minute went by with nothing but the sound of lapping waves and crickets in the woods behind him. Still, he slid his phone light over the edge of the water, just to make sure that nothing was about to creep up on him, and-

-what the hell was that?

Lance frowned, squinting and slowly starting in the direction of the large lump that was on the ground at the edge of the cove. The area was surrounded on either side by tall cliffs that twined their way around the shores of the beaches, speckled with underwater caves that Lance and Pidge had gone spelunking in many times. At the edge of the cliffs, sprawled in the wet sand under the mouth of an overhanging rock, Lance could just make out the vague shape of a person.

His heart leapt into his throat and he walked faster, thumb starting to dial the local police station so that he could alert them to an injured swimmer or surfer. "Dude?" he called out, his feet kicking up sand as he walked and flecking his calves. "You good?"

There was a soft groan from the shape and Lance winced. "You want me to call someone?"

They didn't respond, and Lance moved faster, his feet slipping in the water as he got closer to the person. He shoved the phone into his pocket momentarily so that if he lost his balance he wouldn't lose it and proceeded carefully, knowing that the closer he got to the cliffs, the more moss he would find under him. The still standing water was a breeding ground for the slippery stuff, and Hunk had taken a couple nasty spills on it before.

Despite his caution, Lance found himself flailing as he stepped the wrong way, not ten feet from the guy on the ground. His knees hit the ground first, barking in pain at the sensation of solid sand and rock under them, and Lance hissed a curse between his teeth as tears gathered in the corners of his eyes.

Still, the person was clearly hurt, so Lance moved forwards on his hands and knees, brushing off his right hand on his shirt and pulling the phone out of his pocket again. The light flickered off the water and he froze, body going rigid as the liquid under him churned with crimson.

"Holy…"

Blood. He was kneeling in blood. Either his knees had gotten cut badly, or…

Lance lifted his head and his flashlight to flash directly on the person.

He had never screamed so loudly in his life, practically throwing his phone at the shape in front of him and backpedaling in the water so fast that his fingers slipped and he slammed his head against the sand. His phone vanished somewhere onto the beach (thank god for little miracles), and he whimpered, rubbing at the back of his scalp and cursing.

Because that was definitely _not_ a person lying face down in the sand. At least, not a whole person.

Trembling, Lance lifted his upper body so that he was propped on his elbows, his shirt now soaking wet and clinging to his body like a second skin. He couldn't see anything now, thanks to throwing the phone, but he could still picture in his head what he had just seen.

Blood, everywhere, first of all. A shirtless torso. Dark hair. But lower, from the hips down?

Lance swallowed hard and crawled back up the beach, fumbling in the sand until he located his phone again, training it in the general direction of the body.

Light flashed off of ruby red and crimson scales, though Lance wasn't sure if the crimson was from blood or the actual scales themselves. They faded from existence where the red met the pale of the man's torso, melding seamlessly into two separate body parts. Lance slid the light down the body, eyes crawling down the tail and landing on the flippers, which matched the red of the scales and curved in a sharp "V" formation.

Gathering his courage, Lance edged closer and shined the light all over, trying to spot where this guy…this… _merman_ …was injured. Nothing on the back of him seemed like a problem though, so Lance steeled himself, set his phone down with the flashlight facing up, and squatted in the water.

Fingers tightening around the guy's shoulders, he pushed and heaved and nearly face planted trying to roll him over. When he finally did, with a loud splash that rang through the cove, Lance was panting like he had just run a marathon, sweat trickling down his face.

"Damn, you're heavy," he grunted, picking up the phone again and starting at the lower part of the tail. About halfway up, he found the source of all the blood; a massive gash ran from where his knees would be, if he had knees, and up to the thigh area. Lance winced and continued up the body, jolting a little when the light caught on glimmering dark eyes that reminded Lance of the deepest part of the cove.

"Holy shit," he gasped, pressing a hand to his forehead. "Don't fucking _do_ that, you asshole."

His lips twitched, like the guy was trying to decide whether or not he wanted to laugh, and Lance managed a weak smile. "I'm uh…I'm going to try and get you fixed up. If that's cool."

He studied Lance warily, teeth playing at his lower lip as he nodded. Lance tilted his head and tugged his shirt off, grimacing as it stuck to his skin. He used that to put pressure on the wound, trying to ignore the fact that he was hovering over a mythical creature—a mythical _hot_ creature—and focusing on dialing Hunk's number on his somehow still-functional cell phone.

"Hey Hunk? Yeah, I know it's late, sorry buddy…listen, can you meet me in the cove? And bring like…first aid supplies….? No, you dummy, I'm fine. Please?"

He grinned after a moment. "You're the best, man."

He hung up, tossing the phone back into the sand, and then gazed down at where he knew this guy's eyes were. "Uh…I'm Lance, by the way. And you're gonna be fine. Promise."

There was silence for a moment, and Lance relaxed into the feeling of his wet shirt in his hands, the water gliding around his knees and calves, the bizarre feeling of scales under his knuckles.

"Thank you, Lance."

Lance started at the voice, soft and deep and somehow fitting for this guy, and he was glad that it was dark, because his blush was definitely as bright as this guy's tail. "You're welcome," he murmured.

The silence was perfect after that moment, the crickets hushing in favor of frogs as the early morning started peeking over the horizon, gold and pink filtering over the water and reminding Lance that he had been there for almost two hours.

All serenity was shattered, however, when Hunk showed up and screamed.


	2. Mariana

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone so far who has reviewed this story! I really have no plans for it, so I appreciate all the support!! Also, I know very little, if any Spanish, so there most likely won't be anything and if there is, it'll be like a phrase here and there. Luckily I have friends who do speak fluent Spanish who would be willing to help out (looking at you, Flavia)

_All serenity was shattered, however, when Hunk showed up and screamed._

~~~~~

Lance was on his feet in an instant, leaving the injured merman on the ground and sprinting over to his friend, who held a massive flashlight in one shaking hand and a first aid kit in the other. "Dude!" he hissed, slapping a hand over Hunk's mouth. "Do you _want_ my entire family to wake up and come looking for us?"

Hunk swallowed loudly enough for Lance to hear him, his eyes stuck on the guy in the surf who was illuminated by Hunk's flashlight. "Uh…you uh…you didn't happen to mention that you needed a first aid kit for a HALF MAN."

Lance looked like he was in _The Office_ at the moment, pressing two fingers to the bridge of his nose and taking a deep breath. "Hunk. He's hurt. We need to help him."

That made Hunk calm down a little. Despite his jumpiness, he was an empathetic person who would cross a six-lane highway to help an injured rabbit on the other side. He lowered the flashlight a little, slipped off his shoes, and trotted into the ankle-deep water, kneeling alongside the merman and handing the first aid kit to Lance to hold. "Okay so…what happened?"

The merman hesitated, eyes flickering back and forth between Hunk and Lance warily. "I…don't remember."

Hunk frowned and instructed Lance to hold the flashlight and point it over the kit. He dug around inside, coming out with a roll of gauze and rubbing alcohol. "Okay…so like I don't know how to work on…on scales. I don't think rubbing alcohol is good for…"

He trailed off, studying the merman like he still wasn't quite sure he was seeing what was real. Lance plucked the alcohol from his friend's fingertips, tucking it back in the box. "Maybe it's best, then," he said softly, well aware that the merman was probably terrified, "that you just use water to clean it for now."

Hunk nodded and turned back to the man in front of him, offering a weak smile. "What's um…what's your name? I'm Hunk."

He froze at the question, fingers flexing in the sand and body shifting under the gaze of the two humans over him. His throat bobbed and Lance held up two hands. "Hey man. It's okay. We're not going to like…hurt you or anything. Hunk, why don't you just try to stop the bleeding?"

Hunk gave Lance a fake salute and began draping washcloths and gauze over top of the bloodied cut, trying simultaneously to stop the bleeding and soak up excess water. It took a while, considering they were sitting in the slowly rising tide, but by the time the sun was halfway over the horizon the blood had stopped and Hunk was able to wash the excess, dried blood off with salt water to further examine the injury.

"You know I'm not a doctor, right Lance?" Hunk asked, raising an eyebrow at his friend as he dabbed at the water pooling around the edges of the cut.

Lance rolled his eyes, looking at Hunk from his new position on the other side of the merman. "Yes, Hunk, I am very aware. But you're the only one of the three of us with full on first aid training."

"Says the part time lifeguard," Hunk grumbled, squinting against the sun's rays.

"Why, what's wrong?"

Hunk pressed his lips into a thin line and glanced down at the man under him. "It's…really deep. Might need stitches. At the very least, he won't be swimming for a while. Not super far, anyway. I could bind it and it would be fine for short distances, but until it's more healed you would have to stay close by, or you might get more hurt."

There was silence for a second as everyone processed the information, and eventually the merman nodded. "Okay. I'll…stick around here for a while."

From there, it was a matter of Hunk and Lance dragging the merman up the beach until they could rest him up against dry rocks, brushing the sand off his tail, and then proceeding to tightly wrap the wound in massive amounts of gauze and using metal clasps to hold it in place. Lance retrieved plastic wrap from his kitchen in order to somewhat waterproof the bandage, and then they dragged him back to the water's edge.

Hunk returned to the top of the beach to clean up his stuff, and Lance knelt at the edge of the water, tips of his fingers pressed into the sand to keep his balance as he gazed out over the ocean. "Um…if you need something…well I come down here all the time, so. And we're not gonna like, say anything to anyone about you being here. Except maybe our friend Pidge, who would keep quiet. She's good about stuff like that."

"Lance."

He started at the sound of his name, looking down at the merman. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Lance grinned, allowing himself to sink into a seated position alongside him. "Yeah. No problem. You never did say, what's your name?"

He was answered with a sideways glance and a raised eyebrow. "Keith."

"That's a weird name for a mermaid."

"Your name is a weird name for anyone."

"I resent that!"

"Lance, if you're done arguing with your new friend," Hunk drawled from the top of the cove, "we should probably get your stuff back to your house before your mom wakes up and flips shit. And before my grandmother does the same thing and starts the next world war."

With a laugh, Lance pushed himself to his feet and brushed the excess water from his legs, giving Keith a nod. "We'll uh…we'll see you later then."

Keith gave him an amused smile, pushing himself out further into the water and sinking below the rolling waves until only his eyes showed. He gave the two of them a quick salute and vanished.

"You so like him," Hunk teased as Lance trudge over to his surfboard and shut off the still shining lights.

Lance kicked sand in Hunk's general direction and picked up the board, studying it for a second before responding. "I do not, you loser."

"Wait'll I tell Pidge about your new boyfriend."

"Hunk, I _swear_!"

~~~~~

Mariana watched her brother and Hunk ascend from the cove, elbows plopped against her windowsill and chin resting contently in her hands. She was an early riser for the most part, especially during the summer because it meant more time outside, and so when she had ventured off to the bathroom and found that Lance wasn't sleeping until noon like usual, she had a sneaking suspicion as to where he had gone.

He had never not come back before dawn, though, so she had been watching for him to appear for nearly an hour. And when he did, she couldn't help but sigh in relief. Hunk being there was a surprise, though. Usually Pidge was with him for late night surfing, because Hunk was easily freaked out by not being able to see where he was swimming. The goofy grin on both their faces was new, too. If she didn't know for a fact that Hunk was as straight as an arrow, and that Lance would never consider dating him, she might've thought they'd "gotten some" together.

Mariana shivered at the thought and turned from the window, pulling on a pair of converse and trotting down the stairs to meet the boys. She pulled her hair back as she moved, twisting the curly strands through her hair tie and smiling mischievously at the two of them when they crept through the back door. "Well, well, well, look who finally showed up. What, didn't get in enough trouble this week for breaking Mom's favorite serving dish?"

Lance jumped about a foot in the air, his keys clattering to the floor in surprise, and Hunk snickered even as he moved around him and delved into the fridge for a bottle of water. "Jesus, Mariana!" Lance yelped softly, pressing a hand to his pounding heart. "Way to almost kill me!"

She giggled and joined Hunk at the island counter, swinging her legs over the stool and reaching across the larger boy for an apple. "Seriously, though, it's not like you to stay out until it's light out. And Hunk, you never join him!"

Hunk seemed to freeze next to her, and she cocked a curious eyebrow at the two of them. Lance finally started breathing again and managed a laugh, swiping his keys from the floor and depositing them onto the hook by the door. "Lost track of time, is all. And Pidge is away for the weekend, so he was keeping me company. She doesn't get back until later this afternoon."

Mariana rolled her eyes, gaze tracking her sibling across the kitchen as he searched for something to eat. "Yeah, right. Lost track of time my ass."

She ducked away from the plastic spoon that Lance chucked in her direction. "Language!" he scolded jokingly, eyes glittering. "You know what Mom would say if she heard that come out of your mouth!"

Mariana scrunched up her nose and tilted her head to the side. "You should know better than to teach your little sister swear words!" she mocked, waving a finger at him. "Except all in Spanish and much angrier and you'd probably get something thrown at you."

Lance shook his head in agreement and sat down across from her with a pop tart in hand. "Not wrong."

"But seriously," she persisted, bouncing in her seat and tucking her feet under her. "What were you guys doing out so early? Or late? Or whatever?"

Lance gave her a wink and reached out, ruffling her formerly neat hair and grinning when she shrieked in irritation. "Aww, does little sis care?"

Mariana scowled and re-did her ponytail, hazel eyes glinting dangerously. "Fine. Don't tell me. But if you get caught again, I'm gonna tell Mom that you and Hunk are doing the do."

She scrambled out of the kitchen as fast as humanely possible, leaving Hunk to splutter water all over the island and Lance to choke on his pop tart as both of them protested her statement violently.

In all honesty, Mariana normally didn't care one way or another if she got to go night surfing with her brother. She never got to actually surf anyway, because he was so overprotective, but she also had never seen him come back from surfing looking so overjoyed. And that said a lot. Which meant that there was something that Lance and Hunk had discovered in the cove that excited them.

Mariana wrinkled her nose at her choice of words and shook her head. Okay, no, there was something down there that had them both really intrigued. Her first thought was that maybe they had found some kind of buried treasure. She immediately discarded the thought, knowing that if there was buried treasure in that cove, they would have found it when they first looked for it as kids. Her other thought was that they were working on a surprise for the rest of the family, but she doubted he would have been able to keep something like that a secret.

Her eyes drifted towards the rock path that led down to the cove and, after a moment of pause, she made her way down them carefully, converse slapping loudly in the calm of the morning.

The ocean looked like glitter had exploded all over it when she reached the bottom, blinding her and forcing her to look along the beach until she was able to leave the sun's direct line of light. The sand was indented obviously where Lance had dropped his board, where he and Hunk had trudged to and from the shore. She followed their footprints until they disappeared at the lapping edge of the water and knelt, getting the soles of her shoes wet in the process.

Nothing.

With a pout, Mariana swiveled on her toes, still crouching, and glanced behind her. There was a set of lines that looked like something had been dragged, and Mariana wondered for a second if Hunk had needed to drag Lance away from something. That thought made her worry a little, and the 14-year-old made a mental note to keep an eye on her brother when he went surfing alone.

When her eyes landed on the jagged patch of sand that had been dyed crimson, however, she froze, body going rigid with fear and fingers creeping out against her will to grasp at it. Most of the grains slid from her fingers, but what was left turned her fingers red and, when she lifted it closer to her face, she could catch a whiff of copper of the smell of sea salt.

Mariana swallowed and wiped her fingers in the water to rid them of the bloody sand, pushing to her feet and backing out of the reach of the waves. The only injury any of them had ever gotten in the cove was a cut foot from a shell or the occasional scraped knee. Nothing had ever hurt them badly enough to physically stain a large chunk of the beach, and she couldn't imagine what could have happened.

Lance hadn't appeared hurt upon his return, and neither had Hunk. Then again, Hunk had been the one carrying the first aid kit in the first place. So maybe he had been tending to Lance. Maybe Lance didn't want her to worry, or maybe it wasn't even that bad of an injury and she was just overreacting.

Mariana bit her lower lip and glanced back over at the bloody sand. It was almost the length of her lower arm. That wasn't a small injury, no matter what way it was played, and she shoved her hands into her pockets and turned on her heel to dart back up the steps to check on her sibling.

She was going to find out what was going on if it was the last thing she did.


	3. Painkillers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I'm terrible at updating! Finals suck and time just seems to get away from me lol

_She was going to find out what was going on if it was the last thing she did._

~~~~~

Lance watched Mariana swing out the door, her laughter fading as the screen slammed shut behind her, and he turned to Hunk, who was still busy choking on his water. "Dude. Chill. She was kidding."

"Why does your sister even _know_ stuff like that at her age?" Hunk managed to get out.

Lance raised an eyebrow at his friend and tossed him a washcloth to wipe the island with. "She grew up with me and two other older siblings. I'd be surprised if she didn't know stuff like that."

Hunk shook his head, still coughing softly in the depths of his chest, and proceeded to clean up the water he had spilled so that Lance's mother wouldn't send him to the afterlife. "Well what do we do about her then? You know her better than anyone, you know she's not gonna let up."

Lance huffed and leaned against the counter, watching with a meticulous eye as Hunk swiped at the counter. "I know. Just…make sure she doesn't find Keith, I guess."

Hunk gave him a mischievous smile and Lance swatted him with the back of his hand. "Shut it, Hunk."

"We have to at least tell Pidge," Hunk conceded, tossing the washcloth into the sink. "She could be really helpful in maybe helping to heal that wound better."

Lance straightened the washcloth, draping it over the barrier of the sink instead of leaving it in the basin. "Yeah. She gets back this afternoon?"

"Sometime around then," Hunk confirmed. "Why?"

Lance peeked outside, watching as his sister reappeared from the cove with a nervous look on his face. He frowned. "Cause. We need to keep an eye on both Mariana and Keith. Keith to make sure he doesn't hurt himself anymore, and Mariana so she doesn't find him."

Hunk shook his head, joining Lance at the window and watching over his shoulder. "We not gonna talk about the fact that you found a _merman_ bleeding to death on your beach?"

Lance pressed his lips into a thin line and ducked his head. "I was…kind of just trying to process all of it. He was hurt, I didn't want to…freak out." He turned to face Hunk, eyes sparkling with something like curiosity and fear combined. "I couldn't just leave him there because I was a little scared."

Hunk gave Lance a small smile and clapped a hand on his shoulder. "I know, man. That's not who you are."

Lance shrugged Hunk's hand from his shoulder, chuckling to himself. "Enough sappy, man. I'm gonna shower, you give Pidge a call and let her know that she needs to get over here as soon as she can." He looked out the window at his sister, crossing his arms over his chest and biting his lower lip. "I'm gonna talk to Mariana real fast."

He left Hunk in the kitchen and ventured outside, bare feet slapping on the rough stone of the patio on the side of the house. Each stone had been hand painted with dozens of different colors that, when put together, resembled a setting sun. As kids, Lance and Mariana had played games of "hot and cold" around the stones. The loser was whoever stepped on one of the yellow or orange parts of the sun. Every now and again, Lance would still tease Mariana about stepping on them.

Now, she was sitting in the middle of the sun, her eyes tracing over the wavering colors and her knees drawn up to her chin. "Hey, loser," Lance joked, striding over to her and crouching on the stone. "You good?"

Mariana looked up at him and Lance was startled to find concern in her eyes as her gaze roved over him. "Yeah," she murmured after a moment. "I'm okay."

Lance frowned and knelt onto his knees, skin digging into the rock. He ignored the stinging sensation in favor of studying his sister. "You sure? You look a little worried."

She offered a weak, teasing smile. "Awww, Lance, you actually care?"

He chuckled at the retaliation of his earlier words, tweaking the end of her ponytail teasingly. "You know I don't, kid. You coming inside?"

Mariana shrugged and took Lance's offered hand, standing alongside him and giving him another once over. Before Lance could ask what she was looking for, exactly, she had her arms wrapped tightly around him and her face tucked into his still damp t-shirt. "Whoa," he said, gently cupping the back of her head and rubbing her back. "You sure you're okay, kiddo?"

She pushed away from him quickly, swiping under her eyes. "Yeah," she promised. "You just…didn't come back when you usually do. I was just…worried, is all."

Lance winced and wrapped an arm around her, drawing her to his side. "Hey. I'm good. Now come inside and make sure Mom doesn't kill Hunk for spilling things while I take a shower."

Mariana giggled and departed from her brother as they stepped inside. "Okay."

~~~~~

Keith watched the girl leave silently, fingers curled around the rock formation of the cave that rested just next to the cove. He had seen her come down the stairs and bolted, hiding in the confines and studying her curiously. She looked a lot like Lance, so he could only assume that she was related to him somehow, and she didn't do much other than wander around the beach and kneel in the sand where he had been bleeding out.

When she departed, Keith sighed and unfurled his body from the cooped-up position it had been in, resting a hand over the wrap around the lower portion of his waist. The water in the cave stopped about ten feet in, and he was sitting in knee deep water, tail floating just under the surface.

The cut on his tail stung a lot, and it hurt to move, but Keith knew he couldn't stay long before Shiro would get too worried and start a merman hunt for him. He sighed and twitched his fins above the surface absentmindedly, watching water droplets sparkle in the morning sunlight as they fell. His brother was ridiculously overprotective, especially after their parents had been killed, and Keith hated making him worry.

But still, he kind of wanted to stay. He had never once come upon two humans as kind and caring as Lance and Hunk, and it was reassuring to know that there were land people who wouldn't kill him or study him on sight.

Not to mention Lance was kind of cute.

Keith flushed and pulled himself back into the water with his hands, wincing every time he shifted his tail and caused red hot urchin needles to flare up in his lower body. He was eventually deep enough in the water to move with just his hands and fins, and he moved as slowly as possible in the general direction of his home.

"Keith?"

His heart leapt into his throat for the briefest second before he recognized the sound of Hunk's voice and turned to find the teenager standing knee deep in the rolling surf. He gave Hunk a weak smile and shifted towards him. "Um…hi."

Hunk fidgeted a little, shifting from one foot to the other as Keith moved closer, and his hands twisted over each other anxiously. "What are you…where are you going?"

Keith glanced behind him, at the indigo blue of the ocean, the crystal-clear surface of the water, and shook his head. "I…nowhere. Did you need something?"

He looked back at Hunk and tilted his head curiously, flicking his tail a little too hard to stay afloat and cringing. Hunk instantly looked alert, feet taking him far enough into the surf to reach his thighs. "You okay man?"

Keith ran a trembling hand over his jaw, pushing back the tears that were threatening to fall. "Uh…a little…it hurts," he admitted reluctantly, breath shaking as he spoke.

Hunk nodded knowingly and glanced back behind him at the beach, teeth gnawing at his lower lip. When he looked to Keith again he held a hand out, a feeble smile playing on his face. "I know you probably want to get home. I would too. But you're obviously not doing great. Want me to take another look at it?"

Keith swallowed and tapped his fingers anxiously against his sides, studying Hunk's hand warily. It was one thing to take it when he was face down in the sand unable to move. But out here, blanketed by the currents and surrounded by the familiar feeling of caressing waves? Keith was overcome with memories of his parents, of his and Shiro's parents, of their final moments alive, and the last thing he wanted to do was take Hunk's hand. But with how nice he and Lance had been?

Keith took it gently, curling his fingers around Hunk's and wrapping his other arm protectively around his torso. Hunk gave him a real smile this time and tugged him towards shore, careful to slow down and move him gingerly when they reached shallower waters.

"It doesn't look like you moved the wrapping too much," Hunk observed, kneeling in the shallow tides and glancing over the bandaging job he and Lance had done. "Is it the whole tail or just the area where you got…whatever happened to you?"

Keith bit his lip, struggling to remember what had gone down to put him in this predicament while simultaneously saying, "Mainly around the cut."

Hunk nodded knowingly and, instead of reopening the bandage, dug into the first aid kit he had brought back down and pulled out a bottle that rattled in his hands. "Okay, then I think you just need some painkillers."

Keith recoiled at the word literally, pulling himself away from Hunk too quickly and cursing out loud as pain shot up his body again. Hunk, looking distressed, held his hands up in a gesture of calm, bottle still clutched in one hand. "Whoa, whoa, hey man. It's cool. What…?"

" _Killers_?" Keith managed to spit out, eyes frantically shooting between Hunk's face and the bottle.

Hunk blinked, glancing at the bottle in his hand, and then shook his head, chuckling. "No, no, it's cool man. They're _pain_ killers. Like, they kill pain. Get rid of the pain from your injury, or at least dull it. Do you…not have something like that where you're from?"

Keith hesitated, fingers digging into the sand to hide his shaking. "K-kind of. Red seaweed b-basically does th-that."

Hunk set the bottle down in the kit and sunk back onto his heels, eyes studying Keith in such a way that the young man felt like he was under a microscope, which was a feeling he absolutely did not like to experience from humans. "Okay," Hunk said, his voice low. "You don't have to take any if you don't want to. I just thought it might help. You're okay though, Keith. I swear."

Keith knew that Hunk meant more than just the pain in his tail, and he was silently grateful to the bigger boy for not pushing. "Maybe…maybe later," he conceded.

Hunk tilted his head towards the cave openings, raising an eyebrow. "You should rest a little. Lance and I'll come back down later, bring you something to eat…unless there's like…stuff in the cove you can eat."

He scrunched his nose up in confusion, scanning the water and making Keith chuckle a little. "Yeah, there's stuff here. But thanks."

Letting Hunk pull him into the water hurt much less than doing it himself, though Keith still flinched every time his tail jolted or Hunk gripped his biceps too hard. He knew that Hunk was watching him, saw every reaction he had, but he had enough decency to stay quiet.

When they had reached the closest cave entrance, Hunk released him and stepped back, swim shorts soaked through and fingers cracking as he stretched. "See you later?" he asked, almost hopefully.

Keith pressed his lips into a thin line, looking at the genuine kindness and relaxed composure that seemed to hover around the human, and managed a smile.

"Yeah," he finally decided. "See you guys later."


	4. Pidge

_"Yeah," he finally decided. "See you guys later."_

~~~~~

"Keith?"

_Dark. It was too dark. The grip on his wrists was too tight. It hurt. Everything hurt._

"Dude?"

_Motion sick. Too much light. Pain, pain, being dragged but there was so much pain._

"He doesn't look good, Hunk."

_Flashes of orange. Yelling. Stinging sensation. Water. Lots of water. Up his nose. Burning his tail. Glimpse of bright blue. That way. Go that way._

"Keith!"

The merman jolted and recoiled from Lance, who was bent over and leaning in far too close for Keith's comfort, his hands gripping Keith's shoulders firmly but not harshly. Hunk stood behind him, a concerned look on his face and something that Keith remembered them calling a "phone" in his hands. "W-what?"

Lance sank back on his bare feet, his calves brushing the water that he was kneeling in, and rested his elbows on his knees. "You were…totally zoned there, man. Everything okay? Looked kinda sick to your stomach."

"Can merpeople _get_ seasick?" Hunk wondered absentmindedly. "Cause I totally relate."

Keith managed a soft laugh and he pushed himself up into a more comfortable position against the cave wall, wrapping his arms tightly around himself. "Yeah, we can. But we call it current sick."

He said it with a straight face, but the twinkle in his eyes made Lance grin. Hunk just hummed thoughtfully and returned to tapping away at the phone in his hands, leaving Keith to look up at Lance and shrug sheepishly. "I think…I think I was remembering stuff. About…how I got injured. But just bits and pieces. I don't uh, I don't remember anything specific."

Lance nodded knowingly and plopped down ungracefully into the shallow water next to Keith, crossing his ankles over each other and leaning against the cave. Keith took the brief moment where he was unguarded to study him, having been too injured and out of it to really look at him before. Legs weren't something he was used to seeing up close.

If he was being honest with himself, feet were ugly. The toes were all separated from each other and he had heard rumors that they smelled. The nails on Lance's toes were flecked with a paint of some kind, and Keith made a mental note to ask him about it later.

The rest of the legs, though. Keith could tell just from looking at them that Lance was used to kicking against the currents and the waves, because Lance's lower legs were flexed enough to reveal toned muscle that Keith had only ever seen in the bodies of early morning runners along the beach. They were tan, a warm color that seemed comforting almost, and matched up perfectly with the rest of his body color. Keith wasn't used to that, either. Merpeople obviously had very different colors on different parts of their bodies, and all of the humans he had seen before usually had weird tan lines from their clothing.

"Keith?"

He shook his head and dragged his eyes away from Lance's legs to his eyes, flushing when he realized that he had been caught staring. "Yeah?"

Lance grinned and dragged his knees to his chin, nodding up towards Hunk. "Pidge is on her way. We didn't tell her why we wanted her to come over though, so if you're not cool with another person that's totally fine."

Keith hesitated, looking between Hunk and Lance warily and rubbing a hand absentmindedly over the couple of scattered scales on the sides of his wrist. "I…she won't say anything?"

Hunk and Lance both snorted. "Dude," Hunk laughed, "if anything, she'll ask you a million and one questions about you and where you live. She's a total science geek. Wants to be a marine biologist when she gets older."

Keith flinched, the words setting off tiny alarms in his head, and Lance tilted his head at him curiously. "But like, she wouldn't put anyone or anything in danger. She's real particular about everything she studies being safe. N-not to say that she would _study_ you, she-"

"Lance."

Hunk's voice shut him up and they both stared at Keith, the merman's nails digging into his skin and his eyes shut firmly against pale cheeks. Lance reached a hand out slowly, fingers alighting softly on Keith's bicep. "Keith?"

Startlingly dark eyes snapped open to meet his blue ones, and Lance winced at the fear that clouded them. Clearly Keith had some bad experience with a scientist before, though Lance knew better than to pry. As curious as he was, he wasn't about to cause a panic attack. "It's okay," he promised. "Pidge is cool, I swear, but if you don't want her here, that's okay too. She just…might have been able to help better with your mobility. She dabbles in inventing."

Hunk rolled his eyes, nudging at the sand under him without thinking. "That's the understatement of the century. She made your board glow, man."

Keith raised an eyebrow at Lance, calmer now. "Your board?"

"My surf board," Lance clarified. "She put bright blue lights in it so that I wouldn't die night surfing."

_Blue._

Keith started, the image flashing unbidden in his mind, of bright sky blue filtering through dark water, casting shadows over his body and leading him to the shore, away from-

"Dude?"

Gone. The idea was gone, erased from Keith's memory, and he kind of wanted to slap Lance for ruining the trance. Still, he had remembered something: the blue of Lance's surfboard, the lights on it. He was sure that was how he had wound up where he was now, safe and somewhat taken care of, and he had this Pidge girl to thank for it.

"Okay."

Lance blinked in surprise, a slow smile slipping over his cheeks. "Okay?"

"Okay, I'll meet Pidge."

~~~~~

Pidge was…loud. That was the first impression Keith got from the girl when she trailed Hunk into the cave, pestering him with questions about what he had wanted, at least until her eyes had settled on Keith and her jaw had dropped about three feet. For a second, she was quiet.

"I _TOLD_ Matt mer-people existed! But noooooo, that asshole refused to believe that in an ocean that we've only explored _2 percent of_ there could be anything that we had missed!"

Keith couldn't help but smile in amusement, his self-consciousness fading as Pidge stepped over, eyes sparkling with delight and face broken into a grin that could have lit a whole city. She was short compared to Lance and Hunk, with an aura that practically screamed energetic, and Keith decided then and there that he liked her.

She grew quieter as she approached him, almost like she didn't want to startle him, and Keith was impressed with how serious she became in a matter of seconds. It reminded him of the way his science class would study scared wild animals on class outings, staying quietly cautious and trying to gain something akin to trust.

"It's okay," he managed, giving her a weak grin. "I'm not going to bolt or anything."

She squeaked, fingers clamping over her mouth firmly and eyes practically glowing. "Awesome," the girl breathed. "Your voice is so nice!"

Keith furrowed his eyebrows in bewilderment and looked to Hunk and Lance for an explanation, receiving only shrugs in answer. "Um…thanks?"

Pidge waved her hands, stepping out of the water and plopping firmly into the dry sand alongside it, legs curling under her until her feet vanished and she was left with tiny stumps, something Keith found fascinating. "Sorry, it's just…your voice sounds really human. I didn't expect that."

Before Keith could respond, her eyes flickered to his tail, eyebrows crinkling as she took in the sight of his injury. "You can't swim, I take it?" she guessed.

Keith wrinkled his nose and flipped his fin in the water uselessly, tiny ribbons of pain flaring up across his lower body. "I can, but it hurts like an urchin."

Pidge grinned at the simile before sobering up again, fingers adjusting the frames around her eyes. "Lance, can you run up to your house and grab some rope and scissors? Hunk, I'm going to need some kind of tarp and more gauze."

When the boys hesitated, she looked up at them with a reassuring smile. "He'll be fine with me. Promise."

They left quickly and Pidge went to work unraveling the makeshift bandage around Keith's tail, careful not to jostle him too much and falling silent as she moved. Keith didn't like the silence, felt awkward in it, and he found himself asking the first question that came to his mind. "Those things around your eyes…are they like…sea glasses?"

Pidge looked up in surprise, blinking owlishly before chuckling. "If sea glasses help people see better, then yes, they do. We just call them glasses though."

Keith reached out and touched the frames thoughtfully, making Pidge jump a little. "We use polished sea glass for ours. I don't…know the science behind them," he admitted sheepishly.

Pidge gave him a warm smile and set the last of the bandages aside into her growing pile, fingers settling into her lap. "Honestly even I couldn't tell you how human glasses work. That is not my area of expertise."

She bit her lip and turned her attention back to Keith's injury, breath sucking between her teeth as she took in the slowly scabbing gash, blood still seeping from the sides and a slightly grayish tint around the edges. "I um…I don't know much about injuries on fish scales yet," she informed him. "But it looks like this is getting infected, which means that you need to air it out and clean it out way more often. It also means that you can't go anywhere far until this is almost entirely healed, or it could split back open and ruin the whole process."

Keith deflated and thunked his head back on the cave wall, groaning. "Seriously?"

Pidge grimaced and nodded, cupping her hands in the salt water and drizzling it over the injury to wash off some of the excess blood. "Yeah. We'll have to wait for Hunk and Lance to get back though."

He had expected that much, and so Keith gave up protesting and leaned back, watching as Pidge kept pouring the somewhat warm seawater over his scales. Every now and then she would glance back at him curiously, and the third time he did it he raised an eyebrow at her. "What?"

Pidge pursed her lips and sat back, pushing her glasses up her nose again. "Are you…sure you don't know how you got hurt? Like…was it a shark? Cause it's too deep to just be a cut from coral or something."

Keith shook his head abruptly. "No way. I know humans have this idea that sharks are bad, but they're actually really calm animals. Some species get ticked off more easily is all. I even know some kids who have pet sharks. They don't attack merpeople."

Pidge frowned and Keith answered her question before she could ask it. "They only attack humans if they feel threatened, or if they make a mistake and think they're other animals."

He nodded out towards the cove. "Even I've been tricked into thinking a person on a board is a seal."

Pidge hummed in the back of her throat and sat down again, ignoring the water lapping at her ankles. "Then if it wasn't a shark…it's pretty deep, Keith. It looks like it was done deliberately. Did you get in a fight with someone?"

_Dark. Stinging. Copper._

"Hey, we got the stuff!" Hunk shouted as he and Lance splashed into the cave, water flecking their calves and arms loaded down with what Pidge had asked for.

Said girl pulled her gaze away from Keith reluctantly and grinned at the other two, gesturing them over. "Okay, good. Keith, this might hurt a little, okay? But we're going to have to move and lift you. Lance, you get his arms and torso, and Hunk, the tail is ridiculously heavy, so I need you there."

She went to work tearing and cutting up the tarp that Hunk had brought down, folding it into long, flexible rectangles, while Hunk knelt in the water at the base of Keith's tail, as far from the injury as he could, and Lance sank down by his shoulder.

"You good?" he asked the merman softly, watching Pidge as she worked. "You looked spooked when we came in."

Keith swallowed and looked over at Lance cautiously, eyebrows pressed together. "I…don't know," he admitted.

Lance nodded and settled a hand between his shoulder blades. His gaze searched Keith's face carefully and then he looked back over at Pidge, who was now settling the rectangles on either side of Keith's tail. Each one only went about halfway down the tail, to where his knees would be if he had them, and she instructed Lance to pull Keith up and out of the water as much as he could. Within minutes she had the gauze wrapped snuggly around the injury and was readying the rope. "On the count of three, you guys need to lift him up. This might take me a minute, so if you're going to slip you need to tell me. One…two…three!"

Lance curled his arms under Keith's shoulders and hoisted upwards, Hunk doing the same on the other end. Lance had the better end of the bargain, so to speak, because he was able to press his back against the cave wall and lift his knee to rest the small of Keith's back against it.

Pidge moved fast, Keith would give her that. She used one section of rope to tie on one of the rectangles, and then moved instantly to the next, setting up what essentially was a flexible brace for his tail to be in.

Within the minute, she had Lance and Hunk set him down, and he curled his tail warily, grinning when the limited movement allowed gave almost no pain. "Thanks, Pidge."

She gave him a smile and nodded. "You can swim, _carefully_ , but I would try not to move anyway. This is just so that if you have to move, you can without hurting yourself too much more."

Hunk clapped her on the back gently, Lance moving away to pick everything up and take it back to the house. "Nice job, Pidge."

Keith glanced over the bunch and smiled, ducking his head to hide the flush in his cheeks. He didn't know what Shiro would do if he saw him right now. But he had finally allowed himself to believe that his brother was wrong.

Human's weren't all that bad.


	5. Surfing Lessons

_Human's weren't all that bad._

~~~~~

"Shiro, will you please stop pacing? You're going to start a current at the rate you're going."

Shiro scowled and crossed his arms over his chest, forcing himself to stay in one place but his tail still moving at about 200 flicks per minute. "I apologize, your highness. But it's not like Keith to just vanish. He's been gone for almost two days and I'm worried."

Allura nodded from her position on her throne knowingly. "I'm aware, Shiro. But Keith is very intelligent; I'm sure wherever he is, he is perfectly fine."

Shiro clenched his hands into his skin, prosthetic arm biting into his flesh. He glared down at the object for a moment before twisting in the water to look up at Allura. "What if he's been captured?" he demanded, wavering voice betraying how terrified he was.

Allura sighed and pushed herself off the throne, drifting down to Shiro and placing the palms of her hands delicately on his shoulders. "If that had happened, we would know. We have sentries everywhere, Shiro."

He studied her cool gaze for a minute, eventually swatting away the white hair that had drifted around him and backing up. Allura pursed her lips; anyone else she would have fired for that kind of behavior, but Shiro was in distress. She knew he wasn't thinking clearly. She watched him as he turned away, head ducked and shoulders hunched, the scars on his back rippling as he tried to calm himself. He flicked his fins in frustration, ebony black sparkling under the skylights, and turned back to Allura. "My apologies, your majesty," he murmured, bowing low. "I didn't mean-"

"I know," she assured him. "We will find him, I promise you. But please, you've left your station for far too long. I need to know all of my soldiers are keeping watch."

She frowned and lifted her head to the surface, tucking a strand of hair behind one ear. "My sorceress tells me something is coming, and I need to be prepared to protect the people here."

Shiro reached down and gripped the hilt of his sword without even thinking, lifting his gaze as well. "Did she say what it would be? Humans? Natural disaster?"

Allura shook her head and returned her eyes to Shiro, fingers clasping together and weak smile returning. "She does not know. But please, Shiro, return to your post. We will find Keith. I promise you."

Shiro took a shaky breath and nodded, bowing to the princess again and then turning, swimming fast and hard to his post on the far side of their town. It gave him a perfect view of the castle, of his home, and of the ocean in general.

He couldn't even remember the last thing he'd said to Keith, Shiro realized as he leaned against his watchtower. He knew Allura was probably right; knew that Keith was most likely sulking somewhere or out exploring, though who he would be exploring with, Shiro didn't know. It wasn't like Keith had many friends.

No, he was probably fine.

Shiro glanced towards the surface world, and then back down at his arm, and his grip on his sword hilt tightened ever so slightly.

But if he wasn't, so help the person that hurt him.

~~~~~

"She's wonderful, really," Keith laughed, leaning against Lance's surfboard to keep from moving too much. "The best ruler we've ever had, though under terrible circumstances."

"Oh yeah," Pidge mused, floating on her back nearby with her arms behind her head. "You said her parents-"

"Died in battle, yeah."

Lance, straddling his surfboard and kicking idly at the water, raised an eyebrow. "So this princess Allura…what's she look like?"

Pidge spluttered a laugh and floated upright, splashing water in Lance's general direction. "Seriously, Lance?"

Keith chuckled, leaning his cheek on his palm. "It's okay. He's just curious. She's…well, she's got darker skin, but her hair is white. She's modest, only wears a gold circlet to show that she's in charge. Something about not wanting to forget who she protects. Not much older than me, about Shiro's age."

"Shiro is your brother, right?" Hunk asked from where he was puttering around with a boogie board that he had dug up from Lance's water shed.

Keith's smile fell a little and he nodded. "Yeah. He's 23."

Lance started with a realization. "Dude, you never even told us how old you were!"

The smile returned, albeit a bit more forced, and Keith glanced up at Lance, squinting against the sun. "17."

"Same!" Hunk called in delight, throwing his arms up and promptly catching himself on the boogie board when he sank. "Except Pidge," he spluttered as he came back up. "She's 15."

"16, dummy!" she yelled in protest, pulling herself towards him with powerful strokes and promptly dunking him back under the water. "As of last weekend!"

Lance grinned and glanced down at Keith, eyes sparkling. "Ignore them. They've been like this ever since I met them. They grew up as neighbors."

Keith chuckled and rested his chin on his folded arms, staring at the duo. "They remind me of me and Shiro, is all. It's okay."

Lance's smile dropped and he leaned forwards on his board, careful to spread out his weight so that he didn't fall off. "I'm sorry we can't get you back to them. Is there any way-?"

"No," Keith said immediately, turning to look Lance in the eyes. "Listen, Shiro is…freaked by humans, to say the least. If you three showed up, toting along his injured brother?"

He lowered his voice and shook his head. "No telling what injuries you would leave with. Especially with his-"

"Lance?"

Lance yelped out a barely intelligible "Mariana!" and promptly flipped off his surfboard, pushing Keith underneath it in the process before flinging himself up above the surface and leaning against the board again, shooting his sister a dazzling smile and ignoring the seawater that was dripping into his face. "Yo, sis!"

Mariana stood just in the surf, water lapping at her sandaled feet, and she put her hands on her hips and cocked her head. "What on earth are you doing?" she called.

"What does it look like?" Lance shot back. "Chilling!"

He could almost see Mariana roll her eyes. "You didn't think to invite me, dumbass?" she demanded.

Her sundress was off before Lance could process anything, revealing her swimsuit underneath, and she had just knelt to take off her sandals when Pidge called out, "Hey, before you come out here, can you run back to your house for a surfboard? We're gonna teach Hunk!"

"We're gonna _what?_ "

Ignoring Hunk's protests, Lance grinned and nodded. "Yeah, could you? I know David isn't here today, so we could borrow his!"

Mariana chuckled and left her sandals on, heading for the stairs. "Okay," she called. "But if we break his board, Hunk owes him a new one!"

"Ex _cuse me?_ "

The moment she vanished, Keith popped out from under Lance's board directly next to Lance and glanced anxiously at the group, fins flicking anxiously. Lance instantly pulled himself back onto the board, stretched out on it, and started stroking, carrying himself and Keith towards the cave until Keith could pull himself towards the entrance with his arms, ducking around the corner and sighing in relief. "Thanks."

Lance gave him a weak grin and flipped around on the board, paddling back to where he had left an arguing Hunk and Pidge.

"I do _not_ want to learn to surf!" Hunk was saying as Lance sidled up.

"You don't _have_ to!" Pidge groaned, treading water freely until Lance was close enough for her to grab hold of his board. "Just humor her for a while until you've fallen off a couple times, and then give up."

"Shush!" Lance hissed, swatting at Pidge as Mariana descended the stairs, her board clutched under one arm and their brother David's under the other. "You need help, sis?"

She shot him a glare and stabbed David's board into the sand, gesturing for Hunk to come inland. "Not from you, loser!"

By the time Hunk managed to convince Mariana to give up on him, he had fallen four times, scratched David's board on the rocks in the cove, and had yet to catch one decent wave, while Mariana had grabbed three and Lance four (once with Pidge kneeling on the board with him).

"You are hopeless," Mariana declared, towing him into shore and helping him up.

Hunk rolled his eyes and fiddled with the drawstring on his swim trunks. "I could have told you that from the start."

She snorted and picked up the extra board, shoving it into Hunk's hands. "Okay, well I'm telling you now that you're helping me clean off this board and putting it away. Let's go."

Hunk glanced helplessly over his shoulder at Pidge and Lance, who remained floating on Lance's board in the water, snickering behind their hands. If he had been any less decent of a person, he would have flipped them off, but as it was, he resigned himself to following Mariana up the stairs to her house.

"That was cruel," Lance said with a laugh.

Pidge grinned wickedly, adjusting her water speckled glasses and slipping off the board. "Yeah, well, you didn't have a plan, so it was up to me to make one."

Lance spluttered in protest, leaning forwards and waiting for Pidge to grab onto the edge before he started paddling towards the cave. "Um, yeah right! If you had given me like two seconds, I would have-"

"Would have what?" Keith asked as they came into earshot. He was leaned against the inner cave wall, arms crossed over his chest and tail floating leisurely in the water. "Stammered some more until she caught me?"

Lance gaped at him in disbelief, sitting up so fast that he unbalanced his board and toppled over, surfacing to find Pidge and Keith laughing together. "I will have you know that I am a _genius_ at coming up with plans!" he managed to get out.

Keith rolled his eyes but stayed silent, eyes sparkling. Pidge, however, just snickered again and shook her head. "Yeah, if those plans involve food and cute girls, maybe."

"Hey!" Lance protested. He paused, thinking over her statement, and dragged his board up into the sand of the cave. "The plans can involve boys too, Pidge, so meh!"

He stuck his tongue out at her, receiving equal snark in return, and then glanced over at Keith, looking at least a little sheepish. "I am sorry," he admitted. "I didn't see her coming down the stairs, or else I would have-"

Keith held up a hand, eyes searching Lance thoughtfully. "It's okay," he promised. "No harm done."

Pidge's pocket beeped and she dug into her shorts, pulling out her phone and frowning down at it. "Hunk says Mariana is asking about us. We have to go."

Keith stared at her phone in confusion. "I thought you couldn't get those wet?"

She grinned as she typed out a reply. "Waterproof phone AND waterproof case, both of which I designed myself."

"She lost a lot of phones that way."

" _LANCE!_ "

He chuckled, ducking away from Pidge's swat, and glanced at Keith. "You good for now?"

Keith shifted his position so that he was a little further from the entrance, face scrunching in discomfort. "I'll be fine."

Lance nodded. "Okay. I'll probably be back later tonight."

"More night surfing?" Pidge asked, standing and wading for the cave entrance.

"Duh."

Keith smiled and flicked the water, watching as Lance stood and gathered his board into his hands, pulling it towards the surf and waiting for Pidge to climb on board before leaning over and starting to push her towards shore. "I'll see you later, then."

Lance looked back over his shoulder at Keith and smiled warmly, arms straining to keep the board from being pulled the wrong way. "Yeah."

He pushed away, eventually stretching in the water and pulling Pidge along on his board as he swam.

"You soooooo like him," she teased after a moment, legs crossed and eyes studying the plant and animal life under them as they moved.

Pidge swam the rest of the way to shore.


	6. Katie's Uncle

_Pidge swam the rest of the way to shore._

~~~~~

Lance managed to slip out of the house without a sound by the time his watch ticked over to 3:30 in the morning, board clutched under his arm and towel draped around his neck and shoulders. The moon shone much more vibrantly than the night before, the cloud coverage minimal, and it danced across the water in white pools that made Lance smile.

His eyes flickered over to the cave where he knew Keith was probably sleeping, and part of him wanted to go wake the merman up, talk to him until the sun rose and he couldn't keep his eyes open. The rest of him ached for the waves, for the lack of the ones he had gotten the night before, to feel the power of the ocean pulsing under his feet and coursing around him.

He chose the second option after hesitating only a minute, vowing to go wake Keith after and talk with him. His feet carried him over the still warm sand and into the surf, body shivering with excitement and chill as he stroked out as far as he could, lights glimmering under him and showing the way. He paused when he got out far enough, eyes sliding over the horizon and the moon lit ocean, feet dangling into the water as he waited.

Found it.

He grinned, watching as the ocean swelled and broke the flat line of sky and water, and he turned, lying on his board and starting to paddle, the giddiness of it all making his heart thud in excitement. The wave grew under him and he pushed up as it rose, getting to his knees and planting a foot firmly in front of him before lifting to his full height, arms stretched out and hands dancing and curving in the air.

Lance couldn't help it; he whooped in delight, a smile crossing his face so bright that it hurt, and he leaned into the wave, twisting his body and his board under him and shutting his eyes for just a moment as he soared, fingertips brushing the water next to him and sending a stream of mist over his skin.

It died slowly, his board slipping from under him and drifting off of the crest of the wave, letting gravity pull him into the goose bump inducing water. Lance bobbed to the surface, board close by and attached to his ankle with the tether, and he breathed for a moment before pushing up onto it again and turning it in the direction of the cave, shaking the saltwater from his hair as he paddled.

The moonlight faded as he got closer into the shadows of the cave, only his board's lights giving him something to see by, and he squinted into the darkness, the smile on his cheeks starting to hurt. "Keith? Dude, you totally have to get out here. I just did awesome on that wave!"

No response came and Lance rolled his eyes, untying his ankle and hopping into the waist deep water. "Are you asleep? For real. Come on, man, it's only-" he squinted at his watch "-3:47 am. Do merpeople even _keep_ time?"

There was still no answer and Lance paused in his splashing, board gripped tightly in one hand and eyebrows furrowing. "Keith?"

The smallest grunt answered him and Lance moved again, pushing through the water until he managed to stumble into the knee-deep portion of the cave. He set his board to the side, flipping it over so that the cave lit up like morning, and turned to kneel next to Keith. "Dude, what's wrong?"

The merman's face was pinched and, Lance realized with a start, covered in tears. He looked like he was struggling to speak, and finally managed to get out, "It…hurts."

Lance frowned. "Well yeah, you have a pretty big cut there, man."

Keith shook his head, swallowing visibly, and lashed out with his hand until it gripped Lance's bicep firmly. "S-something's _wrong_ ," he snapped, gazing at Lance with what looked like fear laced in his eyes.

Lance froze and nodded, turning his attention to the wrapping Pidge had done. "Okay. Okay, I'm going to look at it then. I…"

He paused, realizing he had left his knife on shore. He couldn't lift Keith on his own without hurting him, and his phone was with his knife. "I need to get you to shore," he finished, scrambling to grab his board. "Come on."

Keith stared at him, eyebrows crinkled, but nodded. He let Lance bring the board directly next to him and help him onto it, stretching out until he was laid across the whole board, fins dangling into the water. Lance didn't say a word, merely pushed away from the shallower water and into the deeper part of the cove, turning the board more slowly than he usually would have.

In the light from both the reappeared moon and Lance's board, Keith was able to watch him, distract himself from what felt like fire on his lower body. He had been right, about Lance's calves developing from kicking in the water. His strokes with his left arm were firm, never wavering, and his breathing pattern barely shifted. He had been doing things like this for a long time, Keith realized as he was pulled to shallow water and left alone while Lance ran for his supplies. Had been in the water for years. The scene with Pidge he had witnessed earlier, him hovering his hands over her shoulders while he guided the board they both rode over the waves…it was a normal occurrence.

That thought made Keith appreciate the help all the more, and simultaneously feel guilty for needing it. He kept quiet as Lance went to work, holding a pen light between his lips and sliding his pocket knife through the wrapping as carefully as possible so that he wouldn't accidentally stab Keith.

It pulled away in such a disgusting manor that Keith forced himself to turn his head, bile rising in his throat at the fluids that had been attached to the gauze. Lance wrinkled his nose and set it aside, putting the knife down and taking the light from his mouth to shine it over the cut.

" _Shit_ ," he hissed, rubbing a hand over his jaw and leaning closer. "What the fuck cut you, man? This is…so much more infected than I thought."

Keith shivered, pressing two hands to his face and struggling not to cry in front of him. "I don't _know_ ," he promised shakingly.

"Hey."

A warm hand settled onto his shoulder and he peeked through his fingers to find Lance hovering over him, concern etched into every line on his face. "It's okay," he promised. "Look, I'm going to call Pidge. This…this isn't something I can fix by myself. I don't even know if she can fix it by herself. But I promise you'll be okay."

He was so sincere, voice so firm, that Keith couldn't help but reach up and grasp his hand, if only for something comforting to hold onto. Though he looked startled, Lance smiled warmly and squeezed his fingers tightly. "I'm going to call her, all right?"

Keith nodded and let him go back up the beach, lifting himself onto his elbows and hissing as his lower stomach flared in pain. He took one look at the injury, illuminated only by the moon and Lance's forgotten penlight, and practically sobbed, pressing a fist into his mouth to keep from puking.

The scales directly around the wound had grayed to the point that they were almost black, and they glistened with something that Keith couldn't identify. The blood in the center had stopped and the main portion had become a scab, like he had anticipated, but it too, was covered in a fluid that he couldn't recognize. Most concerning to him was the very top portion of the scab, was pitch black rather than the dark brown or red it should have been.

He had heard of things like this happening before, mainly to amputees; it was called scale rot, and he had never personally met someone who had it. Usually merpeople stayed far away from what caused it.

Rusty, dull, man-made metal.

He glanced out over the ocean, stomach rolling uncomfortably.

_Yelling. Hands, pushing, grabbing, holding him down._

_Orange. Bright, loud._

_Silver metal. Stinging. More yelling._

_Fighting. Screaming. More orange. Hands on his arms._

_Water._

Keith pressed both hands to his head and flopped back on the board with a groan as the images vanished, leaving him with the recollection that he had indeed been hurt by something human, and that…

_What?_

He couldn't remember what it was he was trying to picture, the feeling sitting at the edge of his memory but unwilling to step forwards and announce it's presence. He sighed and looked to Lance, who was making his way back down to him, a towel around his neck that dangled down and covered most of his chest. The phone was to his ear, and he was studying Keith in concern. "No, no, Katie, listen…yes, _gray_ at the edges. No, I don't know, it's like…pus, almost."

His nose crinkled as he talked, and he knelt next to Keith and hovered a shaky hand over the graying scales. "You sure?"

He paused for a moment and Keith could hear the warbled sound of a voice through the speakers, unable to make out what was being said. Lance spoke again, drawing Keith's attention back to his face. "You're positive he won't say anything?"

That certainly woke Keith up. He reached out, gripping Lance's forearm anxiously, and Lance gave him a reassuring smile. "Okay. I'll meet you there. Thanks."

He hung up the phone and Keith whimpered. "Lance?"

Lance shook his head and leaned over, grabbing Keith's hand from his arm and squeezing it again. "Hey, no it's okay. You'll be fine. I just…need to figure out how to get you into a speedboat. Alone."

"Who's Katie?"

That startled Lance. "What? Oh, sorry. That's Pidge's real name. She…her uncle is a marine biologist and veterinarian down at the aquarium on the waterfront. It's where she gets all of her passion for marine life. She thinks, since it's the…um…not human part of you that's injured, that maybe he could help."

Keith relaxed just a little, letting his hand fall back to his chest and taking a deep breath. "Okay," he managed. "He…won't do anything?"

Lance smiled reassuringly and shook his head. "Doubt it. He's kind of eccentric, but he really cares about living things. He would never purposefully put anyone or anything in harms way. My main problem is getting you into the boat without Hunk. He and Pidge are on their way to the aquarium now. They always have a vet on the nightshift just in case, and tonight was his night. Lucky, huh?"

Keith didn't really know what half of that meant, but he nodded anyway. He watched as Lance pushed himself to his feet and went running for the dock at the edge of the beach. He had explained to Keith earlier that day that his family had exactly two boats, one that you moved with oars and another you used with a motor for. So when Lance brought over the motor one with the oars, Keith was confused.

"Why are you using the oars?" he asked as Lance pulled the boat into shallow water and hopped back up. "Isn't it faster to use the motor?"

"Yes, but it's also louder," Lance declared, nodding up to his house. "And Mariana and my mother are the lightest sleepers in the world."

Keith hummed thoughtfully while Lance dragged the board as close to the boat as he could. He knew what that was like. Shiro never slept, it felt, and he knew that was partly due to his guard training. He also knew the other half of the reason, though, so Keith tried not to sneak out at night if he could help it.

Not like he had anywhere to be anyway. And of course the one time he _did_ sneak out…

Keith scowled down at his tail and then looked up at Lance. "How are you getting me into the boat?"

Lance frowned and glanced from Keith to the boat and back. "Well…it's going to hurt."

Before Keith could protest, Lance had an arm under his shoulders and another under the curve of his tail and was hoisting him into the air faster than Keith could understand, his body rocketing with pain. He yelped, clenching his jaw when he remembered that the cove echoed, and wrapped his arms around Lance's neck firmly.

Tears threatened to spill as Lance turned and carefully settled him into the bottom of the boat, being more gentle than Keith had anticipated. "Will you dry out?" he asked softly, eyes apologetic.

Keith felt his chest swell with emotion at the thought and he shook his head. "I um…I don't think so."

Lance nodded and pulled his board up the beach to lean against the stone wall that led to the stair case, grabbing his phone, shoes, and shirt on the way back down. He handed Keith the towel as he climbed in next to him, dripping wet with cold seawater. "Just in case," he informed him.

He picked up the oars and pushed them out into open water, and Keith's mouth went dry at the movements, Lance's biceps flexing and pulling as he rowed them to a point where the sound of the motor wouldn't be audible from the house. He almost considered shoving the towel into his mouth, but decided that might be weird.

About twenty yards out, Lance pulled the oars in and put them at his sandaled feet, twisting around and starting to pull at the outboard motor. Keith's eyes were drawn to a mark on Lance's lower middle back, nearly hidden by his swim trunks, that he hadn't noticed before. "What's that?" he found himself asking.

Lance jumped, effectively starting the motor with the motion, and whirled around once he had gotten them steered on the right course. "What's what?" he asked.

"The thing, on your back," he said, pointing. He had all but forgotten the pain in his tail as curiosity overwhelmed him. "It looks kind of like an inking."

Lance gave a grin. "An inking, huh?"

Keith frowned. "Yeah. People use octopus or squid ink on merpeople and create permanent drawings on their bodies. We call them inkings. That...that looks like one."

The boy chuckled fondly and nodded. "Yeah, it's the land version. We call them tattoos."

"It's a wave," Keith realized, recalling the design in his head. "The peak of a wave."

Lance flushed and glanced out over the darker water, eyes wandering but hand staying firmly on the till. "It is," he said, smile softening. "My um…my grandfather taught me to surf. He died last year. My parents let me get it."

Keith didn't know what to say to that, so he stayed quiet, instead reaching out a hand in the cramped space and settling it on Lance's knee, light enough that he would pull back if Lance didn't want it there but firm enough that he would know Keith understood. Lance didn't even look away from the water, just settled his hand on top of Keith's and left it there for a moment. He only pulled it away when they came across the waterfront area of the city, cold in the early morning air and darker than usual.

He slowed the boat and navigated his way towards one of the far docks, one that sat in the shadows of a massive building with the word "Aquarium" scrawled across it in curved letters. Keith felt his stomach twist and he glanced up at Lance. "Aren't…aren't aquariums where they put captured sea animals for people to look at?"

Lance frowned and worried at his lower lip, maneuvering around a parked tourist boat before answering. "In some places, yeah. Our aquarium only takes in injured sea animals, rehabilitates them until they're healthy enough to be released back into the wild. Some of them can't go back, either because they'll die or they don't want to, so they stay and help bring in money in order to keep the place running."

He paused and cut the motor, grabbing the oars again to better get around the boats. "It's not…ideal," he admitted. "But we're a lot better than places like Sea World."

He said the name snidely, like it didn't deserve his respect, and Keith decided not to push it. He remained quiet as Lance pushed their way towards the dock, where he could just make out Hunk, Pidge, and a taller man standing in the shadowy part of the building.

Pidge saw them first and shouted softly, as if Lance didn't know where he was going. She ran out to the docks with Hunk close behind her, kneeling and grabbing Lance's oar to pull them in the rest of the way. "Took you long enough," she scoffed.

Lance tugged his shirt on while Hunk tied up the boat and Pidge looked over Keith, who was becoming increasingly uncomfortable as Pidge's uncle made his way over to them. "You okay?" she asked in concern.

Keith shot her a weak smile. "Better, now. Once the wrapping came off it felt a little better, but it…"

He grimaced and ran a shaky hand along the side of the biggest cut. Pidge nodded and climbed to her feet, stepping back. The man stepped forwards then, fully illuminated in the moon light, and Keith tuned out everything Pidge was saying about Hunk getting him out of the boat.

Tall, nearly as tall as Hunk. His hair was an almost unnatural orange color, and he had a mustache that was trimmed to perfection. His eyes were bright and curious, and he was dressed comfortably in a pair of dark jeans, darker shoes, and a sweater. He looked relaxed, but the moment his gaze met Keith's he stiffened in surprise.

"Oh, Keith, this is my Uncle Coran."

_Orange._

Keith scowled and clenched his fists to hide just how badly he was shaking. "We've met."


	7. Stitches and Sunrise

_Keith scowled and clenched his fists to hide just how badly he was shaking. "We've met."_

~~~~~

There was a heavy silence for a moment, where Hunk was frozen with one foot on the dock and one in the boat, Lance went rigid next to Keith, and Pidge looked helplessly to her uncle. She spoke first, her voice low and angry.

"You've _met?"_

She wasn't angry at him, Keith realized, watching as her eyebrows narrowed and she shuffled closer to the boat. She was angry at Coran. Her arms went protectively over her chest and her jaw clenched. "Explain," she demanded.

Coran winced and held up his hands slowly, as if trying to ward off his niece's angry glare. "It's…not what you're thinking," he promised, his voice hinting at an Australian background.

Lance shifted on his feet, the boat swaying a little and his knee pressing firmly, reassuringly into Keith's upper back. "And what are we thinking?" he asked through gritted teeth.

The older man actually rolled his eyes. "Please, Lance, you think I did this to him. Or helped. The exact opposite is true, actually, but we don't have time for this. That cut is badly infected and if I don't fix it, it could seriously incapacitate you."

He looked Keith in the eyes on that one, and Keith had the weird feeling that the man was telling the truth. "It's okay," he decided after a moment, looking up at Hunk. "Help me inside."

Hunk nodded and finished getting into the boat, pulling Keith into his arms carefully and climbing up to the docks, where Pidge had a chair with wheels waiting for them. The walk inside was silent, unnervingly so, but Keith ignored it in favor of looking around. He was curious, had never seen anything further than a few feet in on land before, and everything just felt so surreal.

The doors they went through slid open on their own and Keith's breath hitched. The lights that had previously been dark in the hallway that Pidge was wheeling him down lit up the moment the chair crossed the threshold and he gasped under his breath. He had heard of electricity, knew what it was, but for obvious reasons, his city couldn't use it without severely injuring everyone. It worked almost like magic, and he made a mental note to ask Pidge about it all later.

She pushed him into another dark room, this one remaining black until Coran flipped something upwards on the wall next to the door and the lights started humming above them. "All right, Hunk, Lance, you'll need to help get Keith here onto the table. Pidge, I could use your help with the tools."

Keith wondered why Pidge's uncle didn't call her by her real name, but decided it probably wasn't important and instead let Hunk lift him into his arms and deposit him onto a paper covered bed. Lance stood on the other side, and once Hunk got him up Lance was sliding a pillow under his head, eyes nervous. "Are you…are you sure he didn't hurt you?" Lance asked, gaze flickering over towards Coran.

Keith bit his lip. No, he wasn't sure. He wasn't sure at all. All he could remember was orange from this man, but there were other things…the feeling of water the moment the orange vanished, his tail stinging but the orange taking it away…things that made him think that Coran had helped rather than hurt him. "I…I don't think he did," he finally responded.

Lance tilted his head in confusion and looked up at Hunk, who looked like he didn't want to be doubtful. "You sure?" the bigger of the two asked.

Keith looked at Coran, who was watching him thoughtfully while Pidge skimmed over a piece of paper in her hand. Something about his stance calmed Keith, and he nodded. "Yeah. Go ahead."

Coran took the list from Pidge, pulling on a pair of gloves. "Pidge, boys, you're going to have to leave the room, all right? It's not sanitary otherwise."

Pidge handed her uncle a roll of gauze and exited, eyes flashing once over her shoulder to look at Keith before she disappeared, Hunk following behind with equal concern. Lance stood in the doorway, gaze flickering between Coran and Keith. "Are you sure I can't-?"

"Lance," Coran murmured, eyes sympathetic. "I promise he'll be fine. But this won't be fun to watch."

Keith gave Lance a small nod and Lance sighed, stepping out of the room and shutting the door behind him. Coran turned to Keith, body relaxed, and gave him a small smile. "You really don't remember me, do you?"

The merman frowned, fingers nervously tapping at his scales as he watched Coran bustle around his work station. "I…not really? I mean, I don't think you plan to hurt me, or that you did this," he said, gesturing to the gash in his tail. "But I don't…"

He trailed off, frustrated, and Coran patted his shoulder. He reminded Keith of his uncle. "It's okay, my boy. Listen, you need to stay awake for this, much as I'm loathe to do that, but I will provide you with anesthetic in the tail so you won't feel anything. We can talk that way, and I'll also know if I'm hurting you beyond the injured region."

Keith swallowed, not sure what Coran was going on about, but nodded, fingers curling against his bare skin. He was suddenly aware of how cold he was out of the water, and he flicked his fins fitfully, just to make sure he could. Coran watched all this and then peered sideways at Keith. "You don't need water or anything, do you?"

"Just the tail," he answered, barely paying attention. "It's been out for a while, so you'll need to dampen it soon. But the rest of me is okay."

"Ah yes. You don't have gills, your lungs are developed for air and water."

Keith shot him a look of surprise and Coran shrugged simply, tugging a mask on over his mustache and holding up a needle that made Keith's stomach churn. "Simple logic. Hold still. The first shot _will_ hurt, but after that you should be all right."

His hands were gentle as they slid down the tail and Keith winced at the first prick of the needle. Coran kept speaking while he worked, which helped. "This is what they do for people who need stitches, but aren't going to die instantly if they don't get them. They numb the surrounding area and do it that way. Much faster than putting the patient to sleep."

Sure enough, his tail eventually went numb, all the way up to the faded scales on his skin, and Keith watched in nauseated fascination as Coran began cleaning the wound vigorously, falling silent as he worked. Every now and then, he'd pause to squeeze a damp rag over Keith's tail.

Despite not being able to feel him, Keith knew that Coran was still being as gentle as possible, if only because of the way his fingers hovered just above the scales unless he absolutely had to touch. When he started in on the stitches, which he told Keith would last in the water, the teen leaned back against the bed and relaxed, rubbing his hands up and down his goose-bumped arms.

"What did happen?" he asked finally. "When…when I saw you."

Coran glanced up ever so slightly, the corners of his eyes wrinkling. Keith looked away, staring out the window at the moon, at the way it curved over the rippling water below.

"We were out on the ocean," Coran started, his voice low and calming. "I do that fairly often, with some of the handlers here, to keep an eye out for injured sea life. Caught a lot of turtles in soda rings."

There was irritation in his voice and Keith glanced over, raising an eyebrow. Coran squeezed some more water onto his tail before continuing. "One of the men thought they saw something in the water. Wasn't moving. He thought it was a dolphin, and since they don't lay flat in sandbars, I got worried. Told 'em to go down and get it."

Coran took a shaky breath and paused in his stitching, staring down at the bloody gash on Keith's tail, the crimson red mixing with the ruby of his scales and glinting in the lighting. "Couple of them went down, I went to set up equipment in case it was seriously injured. Except…"

"It was me. I was…I was stargazing."

Coran nodded, running the back of his arm over his forehead and slumping. "Yes. I didn't know they had captured you until one of the women on board came in. Said they caught a merman."

His fingers deftly worked over the wound, black thread snapping softly and creating a slight zig-zag along Keith's tail. "Didn't want to believe them at first, but she…led me to where they had you. I don't blame you for blocking it out."

_Ropes. Biting his wrists, pulling his arms behind him._

"They had me tied up."

Coran didn't look surprised that he remembered, instead finishing up the last stitch and setting aside the equipment, squeezing more water over top of him. "Yes. Painfully. I yelled at them, they said you were dangerous, so I cut the ropes to get you out. Figured I was in charge, they couldn't disobey my direct orders."

"They did."

_"You're not taking him!"_

_"He's not your property!"_

"Yes," Coran mumbled, going over the wound delicately with something that smelled bitter, wiping up the small amount of blood that had spilled while he worked. "They fought me, took my knife. I kicked him, and that was enough time to get you to the side."

_"Get out of here, and don't stop until you're home."_

"I remember."

Coran gave him a sad smile and peeled his gloves off, pulling the mask down with a finger and washing his hands before reapplying a new pair of gloves and starting to put a wrap on Keith's tail. "Then you remember the rest."

_Stinging, from the knife the man had tried to use to get him back. Coran's hands on his back, on his shoulders, shoving him over the edge of the boat. Cold. Cold water, body burning, copper in his mouth. Blood. It would attract sharks._

_Had to get home. Had to get to Shiro._

_Head swimming, unfocused, stomach churning._

_Blue._

"I do."

"You all wrapped up in here?"

The two glanced up to find the trio outside poking their heads in, Pidge on the bottom, Lance in the middle, and Hunk on top, all looking equally concerned. Coran put a final clasp on the tail wrapping and nodded, taking off the second set of gloves and tossing them. "Yes, we are. Now, that wrapping is entirely waterproof, but you'll need to leave it on for about three days so that you don't rub the stitches on anything. And even after that, you'll need to be careful."

Keith nodded knowingly, shooting Coran a grateful smile as Pidge came back in with the wheelchair. Hunk lifted him delicately and he shivered as cold metal pressed against his back, more goose bumps erupting over his skin. Within moments there was warmth over his shoulders, and he glanced up to find Lance draping a jacket delicately around him.

_Blue._

Keith flushed and ducked his head, tugging the dark green jacket around him. "Where'd you get this?" he asked. He didn't remember Lance having a jacket when they came over.

"It was in the boat. Kind of cold in here, so I ran down to get it. You okay?"

He could hear the real question in Lance's voice, see it in Hunk's gaze as he adjusted the footrest to hold up Keith's tail fins. "Yeah. Everything went fine."

Coran turned away from where he had been putting everything away, dusting his hands off. "You need a ride back to your house?" he asked.

Keith furrowed his eyebrows. "We have our own boat. But thank you."

The three teenagers looked at one another, and then over at Coran, and a grin split over Lance's face. "Dude. We have _got_ to take him on a car ride."

"There is a road that leads down to the cove!" Pidge piped up.

"I can take the boat back," Hunk volunteered with a laugh. "That way we won't all be crammed into Coran's dinky little Kia."

"She is NOT dinky!"

Lance laughed and glanced down at Keith, taking in his bewildered expression. "What do you say? Want to…see how land people live?"

He asked it hesitantly, like he was afraid Keith would say no to his puppy dogfish eyes and quivering lip. Like he _could_ say no to them. Besides, he was kind of curious about who Kia was. "Sure. Why not?"

~~~~~

Kia, as it turned out, was a metal box on wheels that sputtered three times before actually humming like it was supposed to. Pidge sat up front with her uncle, who was abandoning his shift for half an hour to take them back, and Keith had been settled into the backseat with his tail spread out over Lance's legs. In his hands, Lance held a damp towel, and the windows on the box were open. "This is a…car? It's kind of like a sea horse chariot," he decided, recalling the things Princess Allura rode around in.

Pidge turned around in her seat, the belt around her chest straining to keep her in place. "That's kind of what cars are based on," she informed him. "The land version, I mean."

"Everyone buckled up?" Coran asked.

Keith tugged at the strap in irritation. He had zipped up Lance's jacket to keep it from digging into his bare skin. "Is it necessary to be?"

Lance chuckled and ran the cloth against the base of Keith's tail, making the merman jolt a little. "Yes, stupid. We have to make sure we don't die."

Keith offered a weak smile, cheeks warm, and twisted his torso to look out the window as best he could. He was in an awkward position, but the moment that Coran pulled out of the lot Kia had been parked in, he didn't want to move.

The road, as Lance and Pidge called it, crackled under them as Coran drove, winding through the darkened city at a semi-leisurely pace. It was a constant sound, reminded Keith of waves crashing, in a way, and it soothed him. The wind pressed the hair back from his face, drying it completely and making it tangle around his forehead and his ears, settling into a cooling drift at the base of his neck. With a strain, he reached a hand out the window, Lance's jacket sleeve billowing in the breeze, and spread his fingers, letting the wind strain through them. He dipped his hand, heart fluttering at the feeling of it being forced downwards, and moved it back up against the wind, pressure on his palm.

He laughed at the sensation and turned his eyes to the buildings they passed, most dark, but a few lit up with lights that announced what was served or done in the building. A few houses had twinkling lights strung across their roofs, and one had a brightly colored starburst on their door. He didn't know what the decorations were for, didn't ask.

Because at that moment, Coran rounded a corner and the ocean came into view, the moon breaking through the clouds and scattering the surface in white light. Waves broke on the coastline and suddenly, away from the city, Keith could make out every star that wasn't covered, shimmering, almost dancing, and his breath caught at the sight.

His fingers stilled in the wind and he tightened his grip on Lance's jacket, savoring the moments until the winding road dipped them away from the view. He slumped back, realizing just how much his neck hurt, and turned to find Lance and Pidge watching him silently, fond smiles on their faces. "Um…sorry."

Lance chuckled softly, reaching up to dab the wet towel along the upper part of his tail, and shook his head. "Don't apologize."

Pidge grinned and turned back to the front, leaning a cheek in her hand and staring out the window. Keith glanced back at Lance, who was still meticulously dabbing at his drying scales, and reached a hand out to stop him. "Thanks."

Lance frowned, glancing up, face darkened by the night but eyes shining under the street lights. "What for?"

Keith looked back out the window, lifting a hand ever so slightly to let the wind tumble over his fingertips. "This."

Lance smiled warmly and squeezed his hand. "Of course."

They were only in the car for a few more minutes, but Keith savored every moment, never letting go of Lance's hand. The crunching sound of what Pidge had called concrete slowly switched to the familiar crackling of sand, and Coran pulled Kia to a halt just a dozen feet from the dock, where they could see Hunk waiting for them, face lit up by something in his hand. He rose when he saw them and ventured over to the car, leaning against the window. "You need help?" he asked Lance.

Lance shook his head. "I got him. You guys go home."

He got out of the car and pulled open Keith's door carefully, lifting him into his arms as gently as possible. Keith lifted his hands to wrap around Lance's neck, missing the smug looks that Pidge and Hunk shot each other. "Thank you," he said to Coran through the window, putting as much sincerity as he could muster into his words.

Coran nodded politely, eyes sparkling. "I hope to see you again, young man."

Keith grinned and they watched as the car turned and drove away, Lance stepping towards the surf until he was ankle deep. "Ready?" he asked, wading in the direction of the cave.

Realizing he still had Lance's jacket on, Keith tightened his grip and glanced towards the horizon, noting that it was starting to lighten. "Um…not really. What time is it?"

Lance tilted his head, shifting his grip on Keith's tail. "Last I checked, almost six. Why?"

"Can we…can we watch the sunrise?"

His cheeks flushed even as he asked it, but Lance's grin was bright. "Um, hell yeah. Here, hang on, there's a perfect spot…"

Lance trailed off, trudging through the surf until he was about waist deep, Keith's fins dangling into the water. "You good to swim?" he asked.

Keith glanced down at the jacket. "What about-?"

"Oh yeah. Here."

Lance lowered him carefully, hands firm and warm on Keith's hips, and waited while Keith shrugged out of the jacket, his face on fire. Lance tossed the jacket over one shoulder and Keith dropped into the water carefully, flicking his tail a little and smiling. "It doesn't hurt too much. Where are we going?"

Lance pointed around the side of the cave that Keith had been living in. "Other side. It's our neighbors property, but he's really nice and let's us use it all the time, as long as we keep it clean."

Within moments Lance had led Keith to a cropping of rocks near the sand, damp with seawater. The whole ocean spread in front of them as Lance settled down, tugging Keith up next to him. As the tide rolled in, Lance tossed his jacket up out of it's reach into the sand, legs getting splashed by the waves. Keith sat just on Lance's right, curling his tail against the water. He caught Lance watching him after a moment and tilted his head. "What?"

"I just…"

Lance trailed off, shifting his legs against the rock, and then looked out to the ocean, seeming to change his mind about whatever he was going to say. "Look."

The sun was peeking over the horizon now, throwing scattering clouds of gold and pink and purple across the sky, sending streams of light into the current, and covering both boys in warmth. Lance sighed happily and stretched, shuffling closer to Keith and, without warning, tugging him against him.

Keith stiffened in surprise and Lance hesitated, arm lifting ever so slightly. "Is this…okay?"

It was tentative, his voice, and Keith didn't like that, so he nodded and leaned fully against Lance's bare chest, setting a hand behind him so that not all of his weight was on the human. Lance did the same, breath hitching just a little.

They sat silently, waves lapping at heels and fins alike, watching as the sun bathed the world in a new day.


	8. Cookies and Waves

_They sat silently, pressed to one another, watching as the sun bathed the world in a new day._

~~~~~

"Five days, Allura," Shiro groaned, arms wrapped around himself as he paced back and forth in front of the princess. "What if he's hurt? Or captured? Or…"

He choked on the thought and Allura calmly swam to float in front of him, her hands settling on his bare shoulders. "Shiro, please relax. Remain calm. I've had sentries out in pairs searching for the last two days. You panicking will not help your brother."

Shiro sighed and looked away, hooking his prosthetic hand over his sword hilt. "I want to find him. I'm requesting permission to-"

"No," Allura said immediately.

_"What?"_

She frowned at him and Shiro flicked back, tail swishing nervously and sending a froth of bubbles to the ceiling. "My apologies, Princess. May I ask why, though?"

Allura glanced back at one of her guards and tilted her head meaningfully. He swam away and returned a moment later with a piece of parchment, which he handed over to Allura. She untied the weed around it and flattened it across her table, holding down one end while Shiro pinned the other. It was a map of the shallows, the reefs, and the cave system that ran along the shoreline of the human town. Allura pointed to an area that had been circled in squid ink, just off the caves and several miles from the town's beach front area. "Haggar has informed me that in nine tide cycles or so, there will be an event that could have the potential to ruin our civilization. She is not sure what the event will be, but we must be on guard."

Shiro scowled. "How can you still trust that witch? She predicted the war wrong and got your father killed."

Allura's jaw clenched and Shiro instantly flicked back, the parchment rolling to a close over the mermaid's fingers. "You are not helping your case, Shiro," she said, words cold and bitter. "My final answer is no. If Keith has just run away, he is fine. If he's been captured by humans...there's little I or anyone else can do."

"But-!"

"Do you have legs, Shiro?" Allura asked dryly. "A way to fly, perhaps?"

Shiro slumped and rubbed the back of his neck with his normal hand, prosthetic clenching around his sword. "No, Princess."

"Then until this event has passed, we must remain focused on protecting the whole kingdom." She settled a hand back on his shoulder and squeezed gently, gaze softening. "I'm sorry."

It was sincere, and Shiro knew that, nodding and giving her a low bow before returning to his post. Allura sighed and looked down at the map on the table, the ominous drawing inside the curled up pages.

"Send for Haggar, please," she instructed her guard. "I need to discuss the future with her."

~~~~~

When Lance woke, it was because he got a mouthful of seawater and instantly sat straight up, choking and cupping his hands around his neck like it would somehow help. He was faintly aware of the delicate hand hovering over his bare back, but for the moment all he could focus on was not swallowing anymore salt water.

"Are you okay?"

The concern in Keith's voice almost made Lance choke more and he glanced sideways at the merman to see him studying him. "Fine," he managed to rasp, glancing down at the tide with a scowl. "Just trying not to die."

Keith chuckled and leaned back on his hands, flippers twisting under the briskly moving water and brushing delicately against Lance's ankles. Lance shivered and rubbed his hands up and down his arms, squinting up towards the sun. "Shit, what _time_ is it?" he wondered.

Keith had never had much use for human time, instead going by the rise and fall of the sun and moon, but Lance scrambled off the rock they had been sitting on and stumbled through the surf to shore, where he rummaged through his jacket and pulled out his phone. "FUCK."

"What?"

"It's fucking 10:30!" Lance yelped, tying his phone into his jacket sleeve and charging into the water like a bear after salmon. "Mom is going to _murder_ me!"

Keith watched in mild amusement as the human tied his jacket around his neck, like a cape, and then plunged back into the ocean, yelping at the chill of the shallows. "Why would she do that?" he asked, tugging at the bandages that Coran had wrapped around his tail.

Lance slapped his hand away as he waded past, the water edging up his body. "Because, if I'm not up and in the kitchen by nine she comes to get me, and I'm not allowed to be out here before breakfast. God, Mariana is going to have to babysit me again!"

"Again?" Keith laughed, sliding off the rock and paddling alongside Lance, tail fins flicking up sprays of water. He rolled onto his back and flapped leisurely, watching Lance's hurried one armed stroke with glee. "This has happened before?"

Lance shot him a scowl and nearly tripped over the sand bank, water hitting his shoulders. He lifted his arms, dripping with seawater, to hold up his jacket from the waves. "Multiple times, if you must know."

Keith stopped as they hit waist deep water, tail settling gently into the sand and using his arms to keep himself afloat. "Good luck, then."

Lance paused, body sleek with water and waves lapping at his knees. He tossed a smile back at Keith, a sheepish one. "Thanks. I'll see you later, if I'm not dead."

~~~~~

He was most certainly dead.

When he stumbled into the house, shorts dripping and sand covering his ankles, his mother went into a tirade of Spanish yelling, half of it incomprehensible purely because of how fast she was speaking. Lance got a whack on the butt from a rolled up towel and then was promptly sent to his room to change out of his clothing. He got another smack on the back of his shins before he was able to stumble up the stairs.

He slipped into a pair of cargo shorts and a t-shirt, tugging his phone from his tied up jacket and pocketing it. He then proceeded to spend the rest of the day cleaning the house, with his mother breathing down the back of his neck any time he so much as _looked_ at a window or door. His phone vibrated continuously in his pocket, but with her hovering there he was unable to check the messages.

When his mother finally declared that the house was clean enough, Lance slipped off to his room and dove onto the covers. It was nearly 8 in the evening, and with less than three hours of sleep, his body was exhausted. But there was still an urge to leave, to surf, to see Keith. He rolled over so that he was no longer suffocating into his pillow and stared up at the glow-in-the-dark planets and stars on his ceiling. They weren't glowing, since the sun was up, but he could still make them out.

His phone vibrated again and he cursed, tugging it out and flipping it open to see seventeen new messages from Hunk and Pidge, all consisting of something along the lines of "Dude where are you?" and various pictures from Hunk of Pidge attempting to show Keith how a surfboard worked. One picture stood out, where Pidge was straddling her board (despite her scientist nature, she did in fact know how to surf fairly well, though she didn't do it often) and Keith had shimmied his torso up onto the side across from her. His tail, still bandaged, dangled over the opposite side, the scales around his hips glinting in the sunlight. He was laughing.

Something warm coiled in Lance's stomach and he pulled up his keyboard to type out a reply, saying he'd been down as soon as he could. He tumbled off the bed, changed into jeans and a pair of converse, and then tiptoed down the stairs. His swim trunks were still in the laundry room, so he'd have to grab them on the way out.

Mariana stood in the kitchen, leaning on the island and skimming over a cookbook. Something that smelled suspiciously like cookies was baking in the oven, and her curly hair was pulled tightly away from her face while she read. "Where are you going?" she asked without even looking up.

Lance paused to swipe at some of the excess dough in the bowl. Chocolate chip. "Take a wild guess, Sherlock."

Mariana clicked her tongue. "You know Mom'll kill you."

"Eh," Lance shrugged. "I'll be back before late this time."

"Yeah, but then you'll go right back out again at 3 am, like always." Mariana looked up with a raised eyebrow and a knowing smile on her face, fingers drumming against the counter top.

Lance didn't have a comeback for that, merely sighed. She was right, he knew that. But he wished she wasn't so keen about things like that. "Okay, maybe," he admitted, watching as she glanced in the oven and pulled the cookies out. "Gonna stop me?"

Mariana pursed her lips and pulled the oven mitts off her hands, staring down at them before setting them aside and transferring the piping hot pastries to a cooling rack one by one. "Probably not," she murmured. "Could you just come back on time, this time? I keep…"

Her voice trailed off and Lance glanced up from the table to find her frowning down at the cookies like she was upset with how they had turned out. He winced, feeling guilty all of a sudden. He and Mariana had always been the closest siblings in their family, seeing as the second closest in age to Lance was David, and he was already out of college. They had grown up fighting, bickering, surfing, sharing secrets, and being generally closer than most kids were with their siblings. So Lance not telling her what was going on probably made her feel like he was drifting.

"Do you want to come with me tonight?" he found himself asking.

Her head snapped up, eyes wide. "What?"

Lance shifted nervously in one spot, anxiety pooling in his stomach. _Idiot._ "T-Tonight. Do you want to come with me?"

Mariana turned from the cookies and leaned against the island, eyes flickering over him. "Do you really want me to?" she asked softly.

He realized he probably looked unsure about it and took a breath, rubbing the back of his neck. "I…yeah, of course I do," he assured her. "There's just…some things I don't know if I can tell you."

That had been the wrong thing to say, he knew that the moment he caught sight of the hurt on her face. "Since when can't you tell me things, Lance?" she demanded, fingers tightening around the spatula in her hand. She looked away and continued transferring cookies, hands shaking.

Lance moved so that he was standing next to her and gently took her wrists in his fingers. "Hey. Look at me."

She looked up with a glare and Lance flinched. Okay, he deserved that. "Mari, I…I promise. I _want_ to tell you. But I need…I need to check first, okay?"

She softened under his gaze and he let go, allowing her to go back to moving the cookies. "Okay," she muttered. "And if you can't get permission for whatever it is?"

"We'll still go surfing tonight. Or rather, I will."

She rolled her eyes and shoved his shoulder, smearing a drip of chocolate onto the sleeve. "Overprotective jack wad."

He grinned and ruffled her hair, screwing up the ponytail. "Annoying little snitch."

Lance snatched four cookies from the tray, burning his fingers in the process, and vanished into the laundry room for half a second, leaving with his swim trunks over his shoulder.

Her laughter echoed behind him.

~~~~~

Keith decided that chocolate chip cookies were the best things that humans had ever invented. The chocolate was the perfect combination of bitter and sweet, the chips slightly gooey and the dough warm when he popped the first bite warily into his mouth. Lance, Pidge, and Hunk were watching him eagerly, Pidge sitting on her bobbing surfboard, Lance sitting in waist deep water, and Hunk leaning on Pidge's board. Each of them had already eaten their cookies and when he opened his eyes, blown wide with delight, they all grinned. "Good, right?" Hunk stated.

Keith stared down at the biscuit in his hand, slightly awed that such a simple looking thing could taste so good. "It's… _wow._ We never have hot foods underwater. For…for obvious reasons."

Lance grinned. "I'm glad I could introduce you to them. My mom makes the best cookies…well, aside from Hunk, but don't tell her I said that."

Keith laughed and went back to eating his cookie, savoring every bite. Hunk had lit up when Lance had mentioned his baking. "Oh my gosh, dude, I should so make you veggie gumbo. Or like, brownies. Oh, oh, or maybe chicken alfredo!"

He was so excited that he let go of Pidge's board, the bright green surface flashing as it rocked, and began pacing back and forth in the water. "What about like…frozen food?"

Keith tilted his head thoughtfully, curling his tail fins and tossing the last bit of cookie into his mouth as he watched Hunk pace. "We sometimes freeze our fish so it stays safer to eat for longer."

Pidge raised an eyebrow. "You eat fish?"

Keith raised his eyebrow back at her. "We live in the ocean. Of course we eat fish."

Her gaze flickered to his tail and Keith knew what she was thinking, but before he could comment on it Hunk popped up next to her again, knocking the girl into the water. "Spaghetti and meatballs! I'm going to do that right now, and bring it tonight!"

He scrambled out of the water, excitedly gushing about his recipe, and turned back. "Pidge! I drove you here! Come on, unless you feel like walking!"

Pidge sputtered a protest but really had no choice, muttering a goodbye to the two and dragging her board up the beach. "We'll be back tonight!" she promised as they ascended the stairs.

Lance and Keith waved cheerfully before turning back to study the ocean. Lance's board sat at his side, and Keith found himself eyeing it curiously. "Pidge says you're really good at surfing."

The teen glanced sideways at him, a smile tugging on his lips. "Are you implying that you want a ride?"

Keith flushed and ducked his head, tapping his fingers nervously against his tail. "I mean…not if you don't want to."

Lance laughed, a bright sound that swelled through Keith's chest and made him grin back. He stood and picked his board up, tugging it into the water and gesturing for Keith to follow. The merman circled it. He had tried getting up on Pidge's board a couple of times, but he wasn't exactly sure how Lance wanted him positioned. Lance answered the question for him, straddling the board on the end with the ankle strap and gesturing for Keith to get on. "How much can you bend your tail?" he asked.

Keith frowned down at the appendage, twisting the fluke a little. "Probably most of the way. Coran did a good job on it, and it doesn't hurt almost at all."

Without warning, Lance grabbed him by the hips, fingers brushing his scales, and pushed him towards the far end. "I need you to pull it in, or else it'll create drag."

Keith nodded and pulled his tail upwards, wrapping his arms around it to keep it in place. It protested a little, but he ignored the twinge of discomfort as Lance laid down, instructing Keith to turn towards the horizon. He could feel Lance's breath on his lower back, and it sent shivers down his spine. The first stroke out startled him and he yelped, only for Lance to chuckle in amusement. The ride was smooth, waves bobbing them up and down, and the sun starting to dip below the horizon.

When they were a good distance from shore, Lance sat up abruptly and turned the board with a swift twist of his body and legs, nearly sending Keith flying. A hand to his shoulder steadied him, and Lance glanced backwards, watching for a moment. "Lay down."

"What?"

Lance took his hips again and tugged him back. "Lay down. Trust me."

He did, Keith realized. He trusted this human with his life, with every part of him, and it was a startling realization. He did as Lance asked, cheeks flushing as Lance straddled his tail on his knees and started paddling. "Hold on," he said again.

Keith could feel the swell of the water under them and he gripped the sides of the board. He knew what Lance was doing was probably dangerous for someone who couldn't breathe underwater, but it didn't stop the thrill that flooded his veins when the wave pushed them up and forwards.

At some point, Lance stood, one foot placed firmly by Keith's shoulder and the other on the lower side of his hip, opposite side of the first foot. Keith glanced back at him in time to see the surfer twist his hips and the board snapped to the right, a line of water spraying upwards. Lance laughed, glanced down, and he _winked._

Keith choked, fingers tightening on the board, and as they came down Lance allowed himself to tumble off the board with a shout of glee. Keith did the same, gliding smoothly into the water to avoid being thrashed by the wave, and found himself chest to chest with Lance, who still had a bright grin on his face even under the water.

The wave crashed over them, muffled and white, and Keith found himself reaching out, brushing a strand of hair from Lance's face, edging closer, tail flicking back and forth for balance. Lance blinked, eyes squinting against the feeling of salt water, and lifted his own hand, sliding his thumb across Keith's lower lip.

Keith shivered, and every part of him screamed at him to kiss this boy, to kiss him and never let him go. But he could see the way Lance was struggling to stay under, and he held back in favor of taking him by the elbow and tugging him to the surface. "You good?" he asked, his voice coming out a little hoarse.

The moment broken, Lance glanced up at him, his breath a little shorter than usual. "Yeah. Underwater breath holding champ, over here. Though I usually don't stay under after catching a wave."

He swallowed, arms hooking over his board, and Keith was suddenly very aware of the fact that he had a tail. And Lance didn't.

Something stung in his chest and he gave a shaky smile. "That was…amazing, Lance. Pidge was right."

Lance chuckled, eyes holding the same disappointed look that Keith was sure his did. "She usually is."

Keith turned away and crossed his arms on top of the board, shoulder bumping Lance's and tail fin sliding delicately along his calf. He could see Lance clench his fingers into his arm and he looked out towards the sunset, eyes studying the rays before he was forced to look away. "Ready to go?"

Lance licked his lips and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, let's go."

They headed back in silence.


	9. Feelings

_They headed back in silence._

~~~~~

Mariana tapped on Lance's door softly at around 3 am, a towel tucked over her arm. "Lance?" she whispered, glancing sideways at her parent's door ten feet away. "Ready to go?"

The door cracked open and Mariana stepped in, shutting it behind her and raising an eyebrow at her brother. He was in a t-shirt and boxers, and his hair was sticking up like he had either been pulling on it or sleeping. "Why aren't you dressed?"

Lance took a breath and kicked at his carpet. "I um…I don't really want to go."

Mariana stared at him, certain she had misheard. "What?"

He ran a hand through his hair, confirming Mariana's first theory. "I feel kinda lousy, I don't really want to go. I'm sorry."

Mariana slumped, rubbing the back of her neck. "Oh. Okay. Are you um…is there something wrong?"

Lance gave her a warm smile, one that didn't reach his eyes. "Nah…nah, I'm okay. A little nauseas is all. Don't worry about it Mari."

He pushed her from the room gently and shut the door behind her, leaving Mariana to stare at the floor, eyebrows furrowed. She pulled her phone from her pocket slowly and scrolled through her contacts list until she reached Hunk's name. She rarely texted him, having only put his number into her phone in case there was an emergency. Now, she pulled up a text box and hovered her thumbs over the keyboard.

_Is Lance okay?_

~~~~~

Hunk glanced at Pidge as they climbed out of the car, Hunk balancing a steaming disposable tray in his hands. "My phone just vibrated in my pocket, can you…?"

"On it."

Pidge tucked the picnic basket they had brought over one arm, digging the other into Hunk's jacket and pulling out his phone. She frowned. "It's Mariana. She wants to know if Lance is okay."

They glanced at one another. "Do you think something happened?" Hunk asked, eyes wandering towards the cove.

Pidge shook her head, tapping out a bunch of question marks to send. "I don't know," she admitted. "You wanna go check on him, I'll check on Keith?"

Hunk nodded and handed her the tray, taking his phone back and sliding it into his pocket. "Yeah. Text me if anything is seriously wrong. Or call Coran, if it's something with his tail."

They separated, Pidge carefully climbing down the stairs and into the cove, eyes scouring the shoreline in the dim moonlight. It was barren, no sign of Keith or Lance, and Pidge set the stuff down on the rock wall before kicking off her sneakers and wading into the water. She was a fairly strong swimmer and managed to reach the cave in a couple of moments, pulling her phone out of her pocket and flicking on the flashlight. "Keith?"

Keith, lying on his stomach with his head tucked into his arms, glanced up at her. "Hey, Pidge."

She hesitated, flicking off the light in favor of trudging up to sit down next to him. "Is…is everything okay?"

Pidge swore that he started blushing, though it was just a little too dark to tell. "Yeah," he assured her. "Coran did a good job, I'm okay."

"That's not what I meant."

He flinched, turning his head away and facing the wall. "I'm…I'm okay."

It was feeble even to him, so when Pidge spoke again he wasn't all that surprised. Her words startled him, though. "Is it Lance?"

Her voice was soft, curious, and Keith felt himself relaxing a little around her. He nodded, numbly, and jumped when her hand came to rest between his shoulder blades, a reassuring weight on his back. "It's okay," she promised. "Hunk and I were talking about it, earlier."

He furrowed his eyebrows and twisted his body so that her hand fell away, propping himself up on an elbow to look at her. "Talking about what?"

Pidge studied him, glasses glinting in the moonlight, and her head tilted. "You like him."

It was a statement, not a question, and Keith swallowed his protest down his throat, fingers gripping the sand. He didn't want to like him. He _couldn't_ like him, because they just….

He flipped his tail fin angrily into the water.

…wouldn't work.

Pidge was still watching him, her features softening a little. "Is there anything I can do?" she asked carefully. She drew her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms tightly around them while she waited.

Keith hesitated. "I…just don't…"

He faltered on his words, flopping back onto the sand and pressing his hands to his eyes in exasperation. "No," he finally whispered. "But thank you."

Pidge hummed and scooted so that she was pressed against his hip, her damp beach shorts surprisingly smooth against his scales. "What happened? Earlier, I mean. It had to have happened after we left."

Keith dropped his hands, grasping his upper arms and staring out of the cave and over the water. The moon was slowly being covered by clouds. "He took me for a ride on his surfboard," he murmured. "And I realized that we just…"

He trailed off again, frustrated, and dug his fingers into his skin as his tail twitched with the waters movement. They were silent for a second. "I'm sorry," Pidge said, her voice sincere. "If it makes you feel better, we're pretty sure he feels the same."

Somehow, Keith didn't doubt that. There was something warm, comforting, loving about the way Lance had been watching after him the last few days. The panic in his eyes when he had found him last night. The gentle touch of his fingers on his tail, his shoulders, his waist. Keith flushed and pushed himself into a sitting position, arm brushing Pidge's. "I know," he said by way of an answer. "But we just… _can't."_

Pidge made a soft sound of comfort and leaned her head against his shoulder, and Keith found that he actually felt a little better. Pidge was like the little sister he had never had, and he couldn't help but lean his head on top of hers. "Thanks, Pidge," he mumbled, fingers curling into fists against his tail.

Pidge nodded against him, took one of his hands, and started smoothing out the anguish.

~~~~~

"Lance?" Hunk whispered, pushing open the door to his friends room. Mariana disappeared into her bedroom, giving them space, and Hunk was grateful for it. Lance barely looked up at him, sitting on the edge of his bed with his elbows on his knees and his head bowed. "You good, buddy?"

"I hate feelings, Hunk."

Hunk blinked, sitting down next to him and letting their knees bump. "Yeah?"

Lance huffed and dug his hands into his hair. "Yeah."

His voice cracked and Hunk winced, wrapping an arm around him and rubbing his back. "Why do they do this to me? It's not like he lives across the world, in a different country. He's half a _fish,_ man. He lives in the ocean and I'm here."

Hunk tugged him closer and leaned his head against Lance's temple. "I'm sorry, man. Can I do anything?"

Lance quivered under his touch and leaned into Hunk's side. "No. I don't know. I hate this, I hate…falling for someone I can't have."

"Who says you can't?" Hunk questioned.

"Evolution? Dehydration? The fact that he's a different species? Is this considered bestiality, I don't even _know,_ Hunk."

Hunk snorted and squeezed Lance's shoulder. "Lance, I don't think that should really be what you're worried about. You like him, he likes you, and that's definitely all that matters."

Lance looked sideways at him, finally seeming to register that Hunk was sitting in his bedroom. "What are you doing here, anyway?"

Hunk tilted his head. "Mariana texted me. She was worried about you, said you didn't want to go surfing. Did you tell her?"

"No," Lance muttered, feeling guilty and gazing at his shut door. "How do you tell your sister that the reason you've been ignoring her is because you found a merman? And that you're now…kinda falling for that merman?"

He snorted, digging a hand through his hair and leaning further into Hunk's shoulder. "When did our life get this weird?"

"The moment I met you."

Lance chuckled at that and nudge Hunk in the side. "Shut up."

Hunk grinned and ruffled Lance's hair playfully, making the teen squawk in protest. "Come on. I made spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread and key lime pie, no way I'm letting all of that go to waste."

He stood and pulled Lance by the wrists off the bed. Lance sighed and slid his feet into his flip flops. "Fine. But only because you're such a good cook."

There was a pink tint to his cheeks that, had the rooms lighting been better, would have been clearly visible. Hunk chuckled matter of factly and shook his head. "Yeah, sure. That's the only reason."

Hunk got him out of the room and down the stairs silently, neither of them noticing the way Mariana popped out of her room and watched them. Something bitter settled in her chest and she scowled, looking at the floor and listening to the door shut behind them. Of course Lance would go without her, even when he said he didn't want to. Of course he forgot about her.

She could tell her parents, get him in more trouble, but Mariana didn't want that. She just wanted to know why he wouldn't spend time with her anymore, when his friends had suddenly become more important to him. So she made an executive decision to put her shoes on and follow the two of them down to the cove.

~~~~~

Keith followed Pidge out of the cave, a smile playing on his lips as the girl told a story about how Hunk had one time climbed a tree to rescue a cat and then promptly got stuck in it. It had taken a lot of convincing from Pidge and Lance to get him down, and they still hadn't stopped teasing him about it. He thought it was sweet, really; the guy had gotten stuck trying to help something that was less fortunate, and he said so to Pidge.

"Oh, the cat wasn't stuck. She got down right as Hunk got to her. Little shit."

Keith guffawed, clapping a hand over his mouth to hide his smile, and glanced up at the beach in time to see Hunk and Lance step off the last step and into the sand. He hesitated, sinking up to his chin in the water, and tugged Pidge's elbow to get her to stop. "Do you think he…?"

He trailed off, eyes flickering up to the stairs as he watched another shape dart along in the shadows- the girl that he had seen the other day, the one he thought was related to Lance. He swallowed nervously and flicked backwards. Pidge glanced at him in confusion. "Keith? Come on, you don't have to say anything to him about it."

"Who is that?"

Pidge whipped around in the water, squinting at where Keith's finger was pointing. "I don't see anyone."

Keith cursed. Of course she didn't, his eyes were able to see in the dark better than a human's. Perks of living underwater, he supposed. "There's a girl. She looks like Lance."

Pidge swore under her breath. "Stay here."

She paddled furiously for shore, and Hunk called out cheerfully when he saw her. "Pidge! Where's-?"

"Hey Mariana!" Pidge yelled, covering up Keith's name from Hunk's lips. "Did these losers invite you?"

Lance and Hunk spun on their heels and Mariana popped sheepishly out from behind a tree, tugging on a strand of hair as she hopped to the sand. Keith sank further, so that only the top of his head popped out of the water. He knew she couldn't see him, but he was still incredibly nervous.

"You _followed_ us?" Lance asked in disbelief. His voice broke, like he had been upset. Keith winced when he realized it was probably because of him.

Mariana scowled, arms looping together over her chest. She kind of reminded Keith of Allura. "Um, yes? You said you would let me come surfing tonight, then you bailed, but then the _moment_ Hunk showed up you went without me!"

Lance visibly flinched, the frown slipping into something guilty, and his eyes flickered over the water, catching on Keith before pulling back and looking to the girl. "I'm sorry?"

Mariana huffed, her voice carrying through the night air. "You should be. I know siblings usually don't get along, Lance, but you've never…"

She shook her head, lips pursing, and glanced at Pidge and Hunk almost cruelly. "Whatever. Have fun with your little party."

She spun on her heel and stomped up the stairs, vanishing. The sound of a door shutting echoed through the night, and Lance flinched again. Keith remembered what he had said about his mother being a light sleeper and wondered if she had woken up. Tentatively, he paddled towards shore, tail brushing the sand. "Are you…okay?" he asked softly.

Lance glanced down at him and his guilt and anger turned into something softer, but still just as sad. "Yeah," he murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. "Let's just um…Hunk, you brought a lot of food, let's eat before it gets cold."

The food was good, Keith would admit that. He decided whipped cream was amazing. But he couldn't take his focus off of Lance, who looked like he was eating mechanically and didn't particularly want to be there.

Hunk and Pidge, as always, seemed to pick up on the tension, and they offered to clean up the food and basket and take them to the car to give them a minute together. The two glanced at one another and Lance just nodded. They vanished, basket in hand, Hunk promising to come back with the can of whipped cream, and then they were alone.

"Are you all right?" Keith asked softly.

Lance bit his lip and glanced back at his house, breath shuddering. "She's never been so mad at me before. I told her she could come surfing with me tonight, I was going to ask you if you'd be okay with meeting her but I just….forgot."

Keith winced and rubbed the back of his neck, nervously licking his lips. "I…I'm sorry," he whispered. "That knowing me is making life difficult for you."

"What? No!"

Lance instantly spun to face him, hands lifting in the air and eyes searching Keith's. "Dude, no. I swear. Knowing you is…the coolest thing that's ever happened to me, ever. I'm sorry you're stuck here, that you can't go home."

Keith grimaced, thoughts flashing to Shiro. "It's okay," he said after a second. "I…I like it here. More than I thought. I miss…I miss my brother, a lot. But I know I get to go home soon, so…"

He trailed off, realization dawning on his face. "I get to go _home_ soon," he said again. "When this wrapping comes off, I can go home."

Keith looked up to find that Lance looked like he had been slapped across the face, and his smile withered. "Lance, I…"

Lance shook his head rapidly, forcing a smile onto it that Keith knew was 100 percent fake. "It's okay," he promised. "Let's just…let's just make the most of it, okay?"

Keith reached out and took his hand, squeezing it gently. "Okay."

Hunk and Pidge reappeared cautiously, Hunk holding a can in one hand. "Open your mouth."

"What? Wh-?"

Keith promptly got a face full of whipped cream, and as the humans surrounding him laughed, he couldn't help but chuckle sadly, licking at the tip of his nose fruitlessly.

He was going to miss them.


	10. Rebreathe

_He was going to miss them._

~~~~~

Over the next week, Keith slowly healed and resigned himself to the fact that he would be leaving soon. After three days, he allowed Hunk and Pidge to remove the wrapping from his tail. Coran swung by the cove to check that everything was healing properly, which it was, and then proceeded to give him another three to five day recovery period for his stitches to fully dissolve.

It became easier to swim, to move around, and he found that he could go farther and farther from the cove every single day. He never left, though, worried about ripping his stitches or getting a cramp while too far from shore.

At least, those were the excuses he gave himself.

Lance started distancing himself from Keith, and while the mer knew it was so that saying goodbye would be easier, he still found himself wishing the human would just talk to him pleasantly. Hunk and Pidge did the exact opposite, hanging out with him every day, treating him to new human things, keeping him company and asking a lot of questions about merpeople.

He knew that they were aware of how he felt, of how Lance felt, but they never pushed it, for which he was grateful.

It was a full week and a half after they had found him in the cove that Pidge showed up lugging a massive duffel bag behind her, dragging it through the sand with little huffs of breath. Her cheeks were flushed and the bag was about her height, bulging all over the place. Hunk leapt up from where he had been lounging in the surf, Keith sprawled on his stomach next to him, and darted over to help her. "Did you bike here?" he asked incredulously, taking the bag from her and lifting it easily over his shoulder.

Pidge doubled over, hands on her knees, and held up a finger. "Yes," she wheezed. "Just…just open it. I need to…text Lance."

She flopped onto the sand and Keith stifled a laugh in favor of turning to Hunk as he unzipped the bag. The larger teen's face went slack in surprise. "Pidge, what the-?"

"I NEVER SLEEP, MAN!"

Keith's laugh slipped out at the distress in her voice and he snuck a peek at her. She was texting rapidly, phone held over her face, and as he watched it slipped and smacked her in the nose, eliciting a yelp. He snickered and looked back at Hunk. "What's in it?"

Hunk gave him a wry grin and pulled out a large swatch of fabric, a glittering gold material that nearly blinded him. Without pausing to unfold it, Hunk tossed it aside and tugged out a green one, still shimmery, but with a clear scale pattern on it. Keith's eyebrows shot up in surprise and he dragged himself up the beach to the bag, curling his tail around him and pulling out the last one, a coral blue that was glimmered with iridescent rainbows. There was still stuff in the bag, but Keith left that to Hunk and went to work unfolding the blue one.

"They're not super good," Pidge said behind him, her breath back and her voice sheepish. "But I've been working on them since I met you. I thought they might be kind of fun."

The cloth unfolded into the shape of a tail.

"There are these things called monofins," Pidge explained, pulling what Keith assumed was said monofin out of the bag, "and there are a lot of people who use them to be professional mermaids, for like…kids parties and stuff."

Keith took the offered flipper into his hands and twisted it around, eyes wide. He had never seen something like this before, and it felt almost wrong to be holding it in his hands. "This is…pretty accurate," he noted.

He stuck his tongue out and shifted in the sand so that he was sitting upright, tail stretched delicately in front of him. Careful not to pull his still healing stitches, he leaned forwards and settled the fake fin next to his real one. Save for the fact that his was more delicate, less firm on the edges, and his was much longer, the base was pretty similar to his own. "How do they work?" he asked in quiet awe.

Pidge skipped down to the end of his tail and picked up the fin. "I got three different ones, one for each of us. This one's mine. You just stick your feet here," she informed, gesturing to the hole at the base, "and inside there are foot holes like with regular diving flippers."

"What do you mean you got one for each of us?" Hunk asked, excitedly digging back through the bag. He pulled out another monofin in response to his own question and squeaked. "Pidge! This is awesome!"

Keith furrowed his eyebrows and glanced over at Pidge. "You said humans dress up like merpeople for parties? How? Doesn't it just look like a fake fin at the bottom of your legs?"

Pidge grinned and dropped the monofin back in the sand, darting up the beach to grab the green scaled fabric Hunk had dropped earlier. "That's where this comes in! Like I said, they're not perfect, but…"

Keith watched in fascination as she pulled off her sundress, revealing a one piece that nearly matched the fabric in color, and then shimmied into it. It was like a single tube, one that bound her legs together, and she had to hop back down the beach to retrieve the monofin. She flopped ungracefully into the sand and scooted until she was sitting in the tide before poking her feet out of the bottom of the tube and sticking them into the flipper. Mere moments later, she was stretching the dangling ends of the fabric over the edge of the monofin and was pushing herself farther out into the water.

"I used to do this all the time with my cousins as a kid!" she shouted up at them.

Hunk and Keith glanced at one another, Hunk with a knowing sparkle in his eyes, and Keith turned back in time to see Pidge stand wobbly in hip deep water, squat down, and then arc through the air in a simple dive.

His jaw dropped, because the fabric, stretched over the top of the fin, made her look almost like a mermaid. It wasn't passable by any means; no real merperson would mistake her for one of them, but it was still pretty genius.

Hunk whooped loudly and set the stuff Pidge had made for him down. Keith tore his eyes away from the grinning face of Pidge and looked up at him. "Are you not going to…?"

"Nah," Hunk said with a shrug. "I'm not a fan of confining my legs."

"Hunk! Bring me the rebreather in the side pocket!"

He dug into the pocket obediently and pulled out a small device that looked like a harmonica, giving Keith a wink. "She gets a lot of inspiration from Batman."

Keith didn't know who that was, but he nodded politely, shimmying down the beach until he was able to swim normally, ducking under the water and popping up next to Pidge, a wry smile on his face. "That's clever," he admitted, eyes flickering over her floating body and the fake tail that she had pulled up past her belly button. "Who came up with it?"

With a grunt, Pidge flipped herself upwards so that she was floating, hips working to keep her in one place. "Not a clue," she admitted. "I just found the pattern online. My parents bought me one when I was a kid as a Christmas present, so I got used to swimming in them. But it was too expensive to keep buying, so I made my own. The rebreather came later."

Hunk handed it over to her, tall enough that the water only hit his shoulders, and Pidge flicked a button on the side of the device. "What does it do?" Keith asked curiously.

"What does it sound like it does?"

His eyebrows furrowed in contemplation and Pidge giggled, popping it into her mouth, saluting him, and ducking underwater.

She was _fast_ with the monofin on, Keith realized with a start. Not as fast as he was, of course, but much faster than he was used to humans being able to swim. He dove after her, swimming carefully so as not to tug at his stitches much, and caught up fairly easily. She glanced back at him, glasses still somehow on her face, and winked.

Keith tilted his head, watching as bubbles moved out of the device, and then glanced up at the surface nervously.

_Rebreather_ , he thought, looking back to Pidge and smiling faintly as she did a flip, the fabric clinging to her legs and glinting in the sunlight. She didn't seem to be holding her breath; even as he watched, her chest lifted and fell easily. He lifted an eyebrow, knowing that humans wouldn't be able to hear him very well underwater because their ears weren't developed for underwater speaking, and pointed to the surface with a questioning look.

Pidge shook her head, a mischievous look in her eyes, and tapped the rebreather knowingly. Keith chuckled, bubbles spilling to the surface, and tapped a finger to his wrist with a tilt of his head. She held up a full hand and then shaped her fingers into a zero. 50.

Whether that was minutes, flicks, or some other number Keith couldn't name, he didn't know. But he had a feeling that Pidge did, and that she would be keeping close track, so he gestured casually to the deeper parts of the cove and then motioned to Pidge, a smile crawling over his cheeks.

He hadn't swum with someone for a long period of time since his and Shiro's last outing, and he missed it. Even if they couldn't speak, he still wanted to show her things she might otherwise not see. Over the course of time he had been there, he had gotten to know Pidge well, and he had a couple of ideas about what she might like.

So when she nodded, he grinned and offered the crook of his arm to her. She took it with a snicker, bubbles spilling from her nose and covering her face, and he flicked his tail once, pulling them down. Her monofin helped take some of the ache off of his stitches, and he was very grateful that impersonating merpeople was apparently a popular thing amongst the humans.

He'd seen weirder, honestly.

~~~~~

"Hunk? Where are Pidge and Keith?"

Hunk glanced up from the book he had been reading, skin warmed from the beating sun and eyes lazily studying Lance. "Mmmm I'm not sure. Pidge was showing him the monofins and tails she made, and then she grabbed a rebreather, and they haven't come up yet."

Lance frowned. "What? How long ago was that?"

Hunk turned his gaze to his watch. "Twenty minutes? Her rebreathers are all charged for fifty minutes, so she's fine. If you want, she made you a tail and got you a monofin."

Lance looked down to the duffle bag, a smile flickering over his face. "I think…I think I'll just take one of her rebreathers. Unless you want company?"

Hunk glanced back at his book and then out to the ocean, and then up again at Lance, a smile on his face that was warmer than the sand under his feet. "Nah. You go. You guys need to be together, I think. You need to talk."

Lance flushed, glancing away and digging his toe into the sand. "Yeah well…not much talking you can do underwater. Besides, he's leaving soon. I don't want…"

He trailed off, lips twitching, and Hunk reached up and settled a hand on Lance's wrist. "Lance. He's leaving soon. But he'll probably be back. Just go, stupid."

Lance kicked at him halfheartedly but obeyed, trotting down the beach and grabbing an extra rebreather from Pidge's bag. She had taught all of them how to use them when she had first invented them, and Lance easily turned it on, tugged off his shirt and kicked off his shoes, and jogged into the waves.

He stuck the device in his mouth and dove, relishing in the silence for a moment before kicking himself downwards, arms pulling him through the currents. Lance wasn't sure where Keith and Pidge had gone but, knowing Pidge, it was somewhere with lots of science things. He twisted under water, squinting against the salt, and spotted the glint of ruby in the deeper area near the caves.

Sure enough, when he paddled down and over, Keith was there, pointing to several different types of shells on the ocean floor. Pidge was excitedly collecting some of them, and Lance noted that every now and then she would pick up one that Keith would shake his head at. She would promptly put it back down and grab a different one, and Lance wondered what it was all about.

He couldn't help but grin at the sight of Pidge. She was wearing one of her homemade tails, and it looked adorable on her, he thought. It was incredibly fake next to the stunning color of Keith's, but he could tell Keith was amused by it.

Pidge spotted him first and gave an enthusiastic wave, pouting when she noted his kicking legs. He rolled his eyes and ruffled her hair teasingly, leaning over to snatch the shell from her hands. He gave it a once over before nodding and plopping it back into her fingers. She stuck it into a hidden pocket she had sewn into the tail, and Lance chuckled internally. Leave it to Pidge to add pockets to a mermaid tail.

He glanced sideways at Keith to see the merman watching him silently, eyes anxious, and Lance gave him a weak smile around the rebreather. Keith smiled back hesitantly and then glanced down at Pidge, who was now poking at some kind of snail. He laughed, bubbles spilling from his lips, and flicked around her, stretching out in the sand and nudging the snail into his fingers.

He deposited the snail into Pidge's palm and she jolted, eyes wide behind her glasses, and staring at the animal in delight. Lance hadn't seen that particular type of animal before, and based on the way Pidge was reacting, neither had she. He didn't really care about the snail though, eyes straying again to Keith, who was still flat on his stomach, tail drifting ever so slightly in the underwater currents.

A knot twisted in Lance's stomach and he ducked his head, cheeks warm. He didn't want Keith to leave, he really didn't. But he also knew that Keith missed his brother a lot; Lance didn't blame him. He got homesick easily, had never been away from his family for longer than a week. Even then, he still got in a funk. With Hunk and Pidge it was better, because he considered them family, but if it was anyone else, he was a mess. He had gone on exactly one trip without his family or Hunk and Pidge, for a school skiing trip, and by the end of the week he had been ready to fling himself into his mother's arms and never let go.

So no, he wasn't going to force Keith to stay. Not when the only real family he had left was probably going crazy without him. That didn't mean he wanted him to leave, though.

A gentle hand settled on his shoulder and he glanced up to find Keith watching him in concern. Pidge had vanished, Lance realized, probably fleeing the scene to give them a second. Keith hovered in front of him, hair sliding across his forehead, and it took everything in Lance not to lift a hand a brush it away.

Keith tilted his head and flipped his fins, moving closer and settling down on the ground in front of Lance, sitting on his tail like a human would sit on their knees. His gaze studied Lance's intently, and after a moment he gave a sad smile, one that didn't quite reach his eyes. His grip on Lance's shoulder tightened and Lance felt his breath hitch, bubbles escaping around his rebreather.

He glanced away, throat bobbing, and then Keith was tugging him into a firm hug, hands clutching at his back, the nearly invisible scales on his wrist scraping along his bare skin. Lance shuddered and pulled the rebreather from his mouth for a moment, burying his nose into Keith's bare shoulder and shutting his eyes, one hand curled around Pidge's rebreather and the other clinging to Keith's shoulder blade.

The merman pulled back a second later and gently pressed the rebreather back into Lance's mouth, fingers lingering on his lips. They stared at one another for a long moment, and then Keith took him by the elbow and tugged them to the surface.

~~~~~

"You're certain this is what she said?" Shiro asked incredulously, glancing over the parchment the Princess had handed him. "This is Haggar you're talking about, how can we be certain she isn't trying to sabotage you?"

"We can't," Allura admitted. Her arms were folded behind her back and she was pacing, gold tips of her tail fin flicking anxiously and her cape drifting behind her. "However, I do not believe she would put her own life at risk for some kind of… _prank."_

Shiro wrinkled his nose and grunted in disagreement, but allowed his eyes to skim over the paper. It was a chart, one that detailed a large section of open ocean just off the coast of the mainland, very similar to the one that Allura had shown him before. This time, though, there was a time, a date, and a cause: one day away, late at night, and a fishing vessel.

"She's telling us that a single fishing vessel will be able to ruin our entire civilization?" Shiro asked, eyebrow cocked in disbelief. He gestured to the map with his prosthetic, shaking his head. "Is she insane?"

Allura scowled, stopping her pacing and crossing her arms firmly over her chest. "Regardless," she snapped, "we need to be ready. If nothing happens, so be it. We'll have been paranoid, but we will be safe. If she is right, then we will be able to protect our home. Tell me, Shiro, which sounds like a better option? Paranoid and safe, or critical and _dead?"_

He flinched, rolling the map back up and tying it off with a piece of weed. He tucked it into the satchel he had slung around his torso and settled his hand on the hilt of his sword, tapping his fingers against his tail to hide his nervousness. "You're right," he murmured, ducking his head to avoid her intense gaze. "I'm just merely…confused, I guess."

Allura sighed and flicked up to him, settling a hand on his shoulder. "Shiro, normally I would agree with you. It would be impossible for a single fishing vessel to ruin our community. But there is one factor you're not considering."

Her voice was urgent, and he glanced up to find that she actually looked _scared_. His gut clenched as he realized what she was so worried about.

"Keith," he whispered, and her nod confirmed it.

Shiro took a breath and ducked out of the princess's grip, excusing himself back to his post and darting away before it was polite to do so. Allura couldn't quite blame him, and she didn't call him back.

It wasn't every day that you discovered your little brother could bring about the downfall of your entire city, after all.


	11. Gunshots

_It wasn't every day that you discovered your little brother could bring about the downfall of your entire city, after all._

~~~~~

"What's your favorite color?"

Keith tilted his head, arms crossed behind his neck and body stretched lazily across the sand. "What?"

Lance pursed his lips, staring up at the constellations that were decorating the sky. "Your favorite color. I don't know it."

Keith pushed himself up on his elbows, wet sand sinking under his weight, and looked at Lance. "I'm pretty partial to royal blue. But why?"

"Mine's that orangey-red color that sunsets make."

Keith waited, but that seemed to be the end of Lance's statement, and he cocked an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?" he asked again.

Lance licked his lips nervously, eyes flickering down to Keith's nearly unblemished tail, marred only by his still healing scar and the remaining few stitches in the scales. His wrapping was gone and, aside from occasional twinges, unless Keith hit something he didn't feel any kind of pain. "You're leaving soon. Probably tonight," he pointed out.

_Oh._

Something tightened in Keith's chest and he rolled back over, letting his fins flop against the water and sending a spray of mist into the air, reflected in the wavering moonlight. "Yeah," he admitted. "I…I was. Going to leave, I mean. I wasn't going to go without telling you, but I…"

He cut his words off, but they still hung in the air. _I wasn't going to tell anyone else._

"Hunk and Pidge care about you," Lance muttered, crossing his arms over himself and digging his fingers into his skin. "You should at least say goodbye to them."

Keith swallowed. "I'm hoping to come back."

Lance bolted upright, staring down at Keith and watching him with a slightly slack jaw as he sat up, smoothing his hands down his scales. "Really?" he asked hopefully.

Keith snorted. "What, you think after spending almost two and a half weeks with you guys, after you saved my life, multiple times, I would just up and leave?" His voice lowered and he flicked a seashell that had rolled in with the tide. "No way."

Lance smiled, teeth lighting up in the night, and Keith couldn't help but laugh. "I am worried, though," he murmured. "That I won't make it all the way home. It's farther than I've been able to swim so far."

There was silence for a moment, and he could feel Lance studying him. "Wait here."

He stood and darted off before Keith could respond, legs carrying him across the beach and to the dock, where Keith saw him start untying the motorboat. He laughed softly, watching with glittering eyes as Lance hopped into the waist deep water and started pushing it over to him. He halted it in the rocking waves and let the anchor drop before skipping back to Keith and bowing low. "Your ride, my liege?"

Keith flicked his tail and sent a spray of water up at the dripping boy. "Loser."

Lance laughed and leaned down, slipping an arm easily under Keith's tail and another under his upper back, hoisting him up through the air and into his arms. Keith instinctively wrapped his hands around Lance's neck and then glanced up, freezing when their noses bumped.

They stared for a moment, Lance's calves buffered by the waves and their hair tosseled by the wind, gazing at each other, throats dry. Keith wanted to kiss him in that moment, kiss him so badly, but he could feel the way Lance was straining under him. "Might wanna um….get me into that boat…before you drop me," he managed.

Lance cracked a grin. "Yeah. Yeah, okay."

He waded up to the boat and lowered Keith in gently, waiting for him to settle onto one of the seats before fully pulling away. He clambered in after him and hoisted the anchor into the bottom of the boat, gripping the oars and pulling them away from the shore, the only sound between the two of them the pulsing water against the wooden hull of the boat and Lance's slightly labored breathing. When they were far enough out, he started to pull them in, but Keith shot a hand out. Lance glanced up, curious, and Keith flushed in the darkness.

"I just…keep rowing. If it's not too much of a strain. I'd rather um…you know just…spend…."

He trailed off, feeling stupid, and Lance squeezed his hand tenderly. "Okay."

Lance took his time, letting the boat drift when he got tired before steering it back on course. Keith let his tail brush over Lance's ankles, occasionally pointing the surfer in the right direction, but for the most part they stayed silent. Lance only spoke when they got to deeper water, the lights of the town twinkling like the stars in the distance. "What's your favorite animal?"

Keith chuckled, but answered immediately. "Starfish. They're small, but they survive more than you could ever imagine."

Lance hummed thoughtfully. "Starfish are nice. I'm partial to dolphins myself."

"Why's that?" Keith asked, tail fin drifting lazily over Lance's calves. He smirked to himself as he watched goosebumps lift on the skin.

"They're free."

There was something wistful in Lance's voice, and Keith looked up to find that Lance had stopped rowing and was staring up at the stars, fingers drumming on the handles of the oars. Keith swallowed, leaning over and curling his hands over Lance's. The boy jolted, looking over at Keith. "What?"

"I-"

Floodlights burst through the night air, completely blinding them both, and there were hollers from behind them. The boat had crept up in a deadly silence, and at first the shouts from the crew sounded concerned, like they thought they were drifters at sea. Lance squinted hard, lifting a hand off one of the oars while Keith dragged his tail towards his body and hunkered down. "That looks like Coran's ship," he noted. Another squint, and then, "It _is_ Coran's ship. What…?"

A shot rang out through the air, one that Keith didn't really register until suddenly blood was pouring down Lances arm. They both stared for a second, eyes, wide, and then Lance's legs gave out, forcing him to sit down hard on the bench. Keith scrambled towards him, tail stinging as he smacked it against the seats, and his fingers grazed over the wound. "It didn't go in," he breathed.

Lance grasped his hand, eyes frantic, and pushed Keith back. "Leave," he hissed. "They want you, not me. There's no way Coran is on that boat. Or if he is, he's not…he's not okay."

"What about you?"

Lance smiled weakly and held up his phone. "Already sent my emergency signal to Hunk and Pidge."

Their group chat was open, an emoji of a dolphin and a skull on screen, alongside it a red fish. He always had it at the ready, for a worst case scenario, and it only took a quick swipe of his screen and a tap of the send button to alert them. "They'll know something is wrong, triangulate my position from the phone, and-"

Another shot rang out and they both ducked, Lance's grip on Keith tightening. "Go," he pleaded. "I need to know you're safe."

"Lance, I-"

_"Keith."_

His voice was urgent, eyes welling with tears, and Keith nodded, numb. Lance took a breath, gritted his teeth, and all but lifted Keith and threw him over the side, the force of his throw rolling the boat over and plunging Lance into the icy cold water. The surfer gasped, face scrunching up with pain as he tried to tread with his injured arm, and Keith swam to him, grabbing his arms and pulling him in close.

"You need to leave," Lance choked. "I'll be fine."

"You're bleeding," Keith snapped. "I'm not-"

Lance shoved him away, hard, momentarily pushing himself underwater before he came back up, sputtering and angry. "Get _out."_

Keith pressed his lips together and vanished, tail flicking in the air and leaving Lance in an eerie silence broken only by the lapping waves against his overturned boat and the shouts of the men on board. He ducked behind the boat, fingers digging into the wood and his other hand pulling his phone from his pocket. Silently thanking Pidge for giving him his own waterproof case, he pressed on Hunk's name and hovered a thumb over the call button, ready to tell him that he needed medical help.

A shout of triumph from the boat drew his attention and Lance's heart simultaneously climbed into his throat and sank to the bottom of the ocean. They were lifting a net, one with a writhing, pissed off merman in it.

His thumb slammed down on the call button and he lifted the phone to his ear, never once taking his eyes off of Keith. Hunk answered almost instantly. "Lance? Where the hell are you? We just got to the cove when you sent your text."

"Off shore," he answered breathlessly, a little dizzy from the gunshot wound in his bicep. "Seven miles? Maybe?"

"What are you doing out there?" Pidge demanded in a shrill, anxiety ridden voice. Lance realized he was probably on speaker phone.

"Trying to help Keith home," he whispered, flinching as the men ripped Keith from the net, holding the struggling merman between them and gagging his mouth. "Went wrong. 'M shot. Keith is captured. I need your help. It's Coran's boat."

Dead silence for a moment, and then Pidge again, dangerously low. "He's not helping them. He's in trouble if that's his boat, Lance."

"What do you mean, you're shot?" Hunk demanded.

Lance gave a wry smile, eyes tracking Keith all the way across the deck until the men vanished below. "I mean, I got hit with a bullet. I'm getting on board. Track my phone. I'll call back when I'm on board."

He hung up before they could protest, shoving the phone into his swim trunks and paddling towards the boat. The crew seemed to have forgotten him in his excitement, which made it easy for him to find the ladder at the bow of the ship and clamber aboard without being seen, arm screeching any time he lifted it.

His first priority was not bleeding out. Lance had been on Coran's boat once or twice, for tours, so he knew there was a first aid kit on the upper deck. He stuck to the shadows, ducking around the cabin and sliding along to the head, locating the bright white and red box over the sink inside.

Using the hand towel provided inside, he managed to dry off his upper body enough that he could properly clean the injury. Keith had been right; the bullet hadn't gone in. He slapped some gauze over it to stop the bleeding and then wrapped an ace bandage around his upper arm firmly, unwilling to take pressure off of it for any longer than necessary.

He called Pidge and Hunk back while he was still in the head, waiting until they were done yelling to talk. "I got on," he said in hushed tones. "Odds are, Keith is gonna be locked up. Pidge, I'm gonna need you here. But I don't know how…they're not gonna leave Keith alone unless there's something else distracting them."

"Leave that to us," Hunk declared. "Focus on Keith."

"And Lance?"

"Yeah, Pidge?"

"Make sure my uncle isn't on board anywhere. If he is, he's in trouble. I just…."

She trailed off, and Lance took a deep breath. "I'll look for him first, Pidge. He can probably help me out if he is on board. Just get here, soon."

He hung up again, slipping the phone back into his trunks, and then tiptoed out of the bathroom, bare feet silent on the cooling wood of the ship. He shuffled to where he had last seen Keith, peeking around the corner and down into a dark stairwell, lit only at the bottom by a faint yellow glow. He could hear shouting, clanking, splashing, and he winced at every noise, imagining the worst. How was he supposed to help?

Coran.

Lance had a gut feeling that the man was on the ship. No way the crew would be allowed to take it out of the docks without him at the helm, which meant he was on board somewhere. He twisted in his spot, bouncing on his toes, and looked up towards the helm.

_Gotcha._

He sprinted, the sound drowned out by the waves that splashed against the sides of the boat, and took the stairs up two at a time. The door to the helm had a window on it, and through it he could clearly see a man that wasn't Coran steering, a small smirk on his face. Lance swallowed and took a step back. The helm was small, a box really, and one single, hard swing in with the door, created to last for years, should…

The man hit the floor with a thud when the door hit his scalp, and Lance took a quick second to check and make sure he hadn't accidentally bashed his head in. Finding that he was fine, just unconscious, Lance turned to the closet in the back of the tiny room that held maps, compasses, excess navigational items that could be used if anything malfunctioned. He pulled it open with a flourish.

"It's about time," Coran grumbled around the gag in his mouth, looking up at Lance in relief. Lance pulled the gag away and went to work on the rope binding the man's wrists and ankles. "Don't tell me."

"They have Keith," he confirmed grimly. "Pidge and Hunk are on their way. Are you okay?"

Coran snorted, mustache jumping, and rubbed his aching wrists as Lance turned to his feet. "Depends on your definition of- what happened to your arm?"

Lance winced, keeping his face turned away from the man. Coran's frown deepened and he reached out, touching it gently. Lance hissed and pulled the injury away, and Coran's scowl became downright murderous. "Those bastards. You have a plan?"

"Not really," Lance admitted. "They're all down in the holding room right now, where they're keeping him. I need them out here, so I can get Keith out."

Coran nodded and pushed himself to his feet as Lance tugged away the last knot. "Gotcha. Then you hide somewhere, and I'll take care of most of those looney's."

"Be careful," Lance pleaded. "Pidge would kill me if-"

"I'm a tough old man," Coran said with a chuckle, reaching out and ruffling Lance's hair in a fatherly manner. "I'll be fine. You worry about your boyfriend."

Lance's face grew bright red in a matter of seconds. "He's n-not my boyfriend!" he protested.

Coran winked. "Yet."

~~~~~

The urgent tapping at Mariana's door was getting annoying, and after hissing "Go away, Lance!" for the third time, she finally pushed herself out of bed and stomped to the doorway, flinging it open with a glare and ready to snap at her brother.

It was Hunk who stood there, however, gaze urgent and feet shifting under him, and Mariana felt her heart plummet. "Is Lance-?"

"Lance is fine," Hunk promised with a soft whisper, his eyes taking in her t-shirt and shorts. He grabbed her gently by the elbow, careful not to grip too hard, and tugged her towards the stairs. "But we really need your help."

She didn't protest. She hadn't been able to figure out what was going on with him lately, and any answer she was going to get, she was going to get it now. He wasn't hurt, of course he wasn't; Hunk would have woken up the whole house and called an ambulance already if that was the case. But something was wrong, and she barely hesitated to shove her feet into the flip flops she had left by the front door, grabbing her house keys on a whim before sprinting out the door and after Hunk to the cove, where she was surprised to find Pidge waiting with a speedboat, one she had never seen before.

"You sure this is a good idea?" Pidge hissed as they climbed in, the question directed at Hunk.

Hunk glanced over at Mariana and she felt the urge to protest, ask why bringing her would be a bad idea, ask where the hell her brother was, but she kept quiet, not wanting them to have any reason to leave her behind. "We need the extra hands," Hunk said firmly. "Come on, you're the only one who can pick locks out of us."

_Locks?_

Pidge nodded and they were off, moving briskly through the night and Mariana wished she had thought a little more and grabbed a jacket because it was too damn cold. Hunk handed her a life vest as they moved, despite her being one of the best swimmers in town, and she put it on to appease him.

"What…exactly am I doing?" she found herself asking.

Hunk and Pidge glanced at one another. "We need a distraction," Pidge answered slowly. "And you are the only person we could think of who could help without…um…"

For once, Pidge seemed to be at a loss for what to say, so Hunk took over. "Basically, we're going to a boat. And we're going to capsize this boat, and Pidge and I are going up the back. We need you to pretend to be hurt around the front to draw attention away from us."

"Why?" she asked in bewilderment. "Is Lance in trouble on the boat or something?"

Pidge bit her lip, illuminated eerily by the lamplight, and shrugged. "Kind of? He's already there. Got on board without being seen, but he needs my help."

"Got on board?"

"Please, Mariana," Hunk pleaded. "I promise it'll make sense when we're done, but we need your help without question right now. This means a lot to Lance, and a lot to us."

Pidge cut the engine and handed Hunk an oar, flicking the lamp off and plunging them into darkness. Even the moon wasn't shining, and Mariana felt like she was going to be swallowed by the blackness of the ocean. "I…okay," she murmured finally.

"Thank you," Pidge breathed.

What the hell was she getting herself into?


	12. Saying Goodbye is Hard to Do

_What the hell was she getting herself into?_

~~~~~

Coran's idea of causing a distraction was, apparently, finding an airhorn stashed in the emergency life raft kit, grabbing a flare, and then sprinting across the deck holding both the lit flare and the screaming air horn. Lance, tucked behind said life raft, had to admit that it worked; within seconds, men were pouring out of the hold where Keith was, rage on their faces.

"How the hell did he escape Sendak?"

"Who knows, just get him before the whole coast guard shows up!"

Lance waited with baited breath while the men disappeared around the side, clutching the knife Coran had given him and trying to calm down. The second the last man vanished from sight, Lance was sprinting, flying to the hold and pulling the door shut behind him before slipping silently down the stairs.

They had left one man guarding Keith, and he was watching him with no malice in his eyes, merely curiosity. Lance studied him from the darkened edge of the staircase, hiding in the shadows caused by the lamp on the other side of the room.

The man turned and locked eyes with Lance. The teen gripped the knife more tightly, throat going dry, but the man just nodded once to him and walked up the stairs without a word. Lance stared after him in surprise, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Keith was sitting in a pool that usually held dead fish, a cruel kind of punishment, Lance thought, his arms chained to the wood behind him and shallow water lapping at his tail. He looked stressed, which was no surprise, so Lance approached cautiously, hands up in front of his chest.

"Keith?"

"It was you," he managed, fingers trembling against his chains as he ducked his head. "You're the reason I didn't die that night. Be-because…you were surfing. The lights on your surfboard-"

"Drew you to shore," Lance realized. He drew back a little, eyes wide. "I'm… _I'm_ the reason?"

Keith swallowed and tugged at the chains one more time weakly, slumping in defeat and curling his arms over his head. "Yeah," he whimpered. He lifted his gaze to Lance and scowled. "And now you're getting the hell out of here, because you are not getting hurt on my account again."

Lance frowned and glanced at the ace bandage wrapping around his upper arm. "This? This is nothing. I'm not letting them take you, Keith. We just have to wait for Pidge to get here, and she can pick the locks and we can go."

Keith shuddered and scooted further away from Lance, face scrunching in pain as his tail bent the wrong way, the stitches pulling at his scales. "Get out, or I'll scream intruder, Lance."

_"What?"_

He clenched the chains above his wrists and took a breath. "Get out. Please. I'm not…I'm not worth risking your life for."

Lance cursed and within a heartbeat he was kneeling in the pool alongside Keith, knife left on the ground behind him. His hands gripped Keith's shoulders urgently and he stared him dead in the eye. "You are absolutely worth risking my life for, okay? Everything will be fine, but we can't get you out of here if you don't let us. _Please_ , Keith. You're worth it."

Keith's heart hammered in his chest as he took in the intensity in Lance's eyes, and before he could help himself he was surging forwards, straining on the cuffs around his wrists to press his lips to Lance's. His body trembled at the effort, but after the initial shock wore off Lance eased him of the burden, pushing forwards and letting Keith lean back, his hands sliding up to curl around Keith's cheeks and his thumbs caressing the tears from his skin.

He couldn't help but sigh in relief at Lance's reciprocation, back arching ever so slightly so that he could properly kiss him, without the tug of the cuffs. Lance pulled back first, forehead pressed to Keith's, and gave him a shaky smile, sinking a little on his heels. "Please?"

Keith felt his lower lip quiver against his will and he nodded, longing to reach out and pull the teenager into a tight hug. Lance seemed to realize this and placed a soft kiss to his forehead, holding it there for a moment longer than he really had to.

"Jesus, that took forever, sorry I'm so la- whoa, sorry."

Lance pulled back with a grin and looked over at Pidge, squinting in the beam of her flashlight. "It's okay," he promised. "Better late than never. Can you pick these?"

Pidge smirked, any surprise she might have felt shaken off, and pulled what looked like a leather pouch from one of her cargo short's pockets. "Is Hunk the best chef in town?"

"Is that even a question?" Lance joked, earning a punch in response.

Pidge had him freed in minutes, helping Keith remove the cuffs and recirculate the blood into his wrists while Lance stood guard. She studied him for a long minute, glancing back to Lance once, and then switched wrists. "How is this supposed to work?" she asked softly.

Keith knew what she meant and he flipped one of his fins subconsciously. "I don't know," he muttered, looking over at Lance and curling his gaze down his legs. "I really don't."

Pidge smiled sadly and nodded towards Lance, setting the cuffs aside as quietly as she could. "Either way, you hurt him, you're sushi."

Keith managed a small grin. "I know."

"How's Coran?" Lance asked, looking up to the deck of the boat.

Pidge snorted. "Holding his own. Hunk started helping him, and your sister is providing quite the distraction from the water."

Lance whipped around, eyes wide. "You brought my _sister_ here? Pidge, what-?"

"We didn't really have a choice, Lance. Plus, you owe her at least six different explanations. Now how are we getting him out of here?"

Lance hesitated, glancing back up the stairs. "Uh…there was this guy, who was down here? Who just let me walk in? I'm nervous that he just left to get us to let our guard down and is gonna jump us or something as we leave."

Pidge smirked. "Tall, puffy hair, kinda looks like Wolverine?"

"Yeah!"

"That's Captain Thace. Don't worry about him. He's really chill, there's no way he'd go along with these lunatics. He's just here to help with the ship, steer it. We don't have to be concerned about him, I don't think."

"Would he help us, then?"

"Probably not," Pidge said, pursing her lips. "He wouldn't want to get caught helping us, because then he'd be at risk from the rest of the crew. We can probably carry him between the two of us, right?"

Lance stepped up next to Keith, kneeling again and roving his eyes over him. "I got him," he said, a determined set to his jaw. "You go ahead of us, keep watch."

He pressed Coran's knife into her hand and slid his arms under Keith's shoulders and tail, hoisting him upwards and stumbling ever so slightly with the rocking of the ship. Keith wrapped his hands around his neck and Pidge ran ahead of them, clambering up the stairs. Lance took his time getting up the stairs, arm screaming in pain, and Keith watched him with worried eyes.

"You're hurting yourself," he murmured, trying to ease his weight off of Lance's bad arm.

"I'll be fine," Lance promised. "We need to get you out of here, get you home."

Pidge yelped above them, ducking as a glass bottle flew her way and smashed into the door above her. "Hunk!" she yelped.

She looked back at Lance and Keith anxiously. "He's in trouble. Straight to the edge and over. It'll hurt, but we're close enough to the water that you'll be okay. I have to go help."

Brandishing the knife, Pidge dove into the fray, leaving Lance to stumble out the door and maneuver his way to the edge of the boat. From where he stood alone, he could see Coran in the middle of a fist fight, Hunk holding off two of the other crew members, Pidge charging to help him and thrusting her knife at anyone who tried to intercept, and down in the water, his sister, shouting and distracting a couple of the crew members with a flare gun.

The boat he had used to bring Keith out was nowhere to be seen, so Lance figured it had either floated away with the current or Coran's crew had fished it out of the water.

Things came in flashes as he moved; a man, shooting at his sister's boat and successfully making her capsize it. Her face popping above water, scared but safe. Pidge getting to Hunk, getting him away, the two of them diving over the other side of the boat to avoid more of the thugs. Coran, seemingly doing well with his fists in holding off his former crew. Captain Thace, silently taking down his fellow crew members without a sound.

He reached the railing just as people noticed him and Keith there, settling Keith in a sitting position on the cold metal and waiting until he had a grip before starting to climb over. And then he was shoving Keith off and jumping, grubby fingers closing around his shirt for only a second before he was plummeting to the water below.

They hit the surface hard, Keith's body screaming in protest as shouts of anger reached them from the top of the boat. He knew Lance had been next to him, had been the one to push him overboard in the first place, but he couldn't find him. He was well aware of Lance's sister in the water nearby, clinging to the underside of the boat. He couldn't remember seeing it capsize, but he ignored that and twisted in the water to look at her anxiously. "Where is Lance?" he asked, voice quivering in desperation.

She stared at him for a long moment, eyes wide, and Keith swam over with quick strokes, ignoring the stinging in his tail from where his cut had reopened in favor of grasping her tightly by the shoulders. _"Mariana,"_ he pleaded.

Mariana swallowed, visibly shaking, though from the water's chill or him, Keith wasn't sure. She glanced over behind him and shook her head. "He fell off the boat with you. Hunk and Pidge?"

"They're fine," Keith promised. He had seen them go over the other side, but he also knew that they were smart and they were both strong swimmers. Lance had been injured, alone, and tired. He turned away, scanning the water and chewing on his lower lip to the point where he wouldn't have been surprised if he actually ate it. "How long can he hold his breath?"

Mariana frowned, eyebrows crinkling, and Keith shoved her back behind the motorboat as more shots rang out. "I…two, two and a half minutes, if he has time to prepare. One or less if he doesn't."

Keith cursed and, without warning, grabbed Mariana's arm and yanked her underwater, eyes adjusting instantly to the darkness and pulling her up under the boat, heads breaking through the surface underneath it. "Stay here," he ordered. "Stay out of sight. I'll be back. With Lance."

Though she still looked stunned, Mariana nodded and Keith ducked out again, pushing the motorboat away as hard as could before swimming to the edge of the fishing boat, keeping out of sight of the gazes of the men. He knew there weren't that many up there anymore, that Coran and that Thace guy had most likely taken care of the majority of them, but he was still wary.

"Lance?" he called out softly, his voice carrying over the still waters. "Lance, where are you?"

There was no answer and Keith swallowed his terror, diving under the water and pushing himself harder than he should have, body yelling for him to stop, eyes straining in the darkness. He was built to see underwater, but with no moonlight and no actual hand held light, he had to rely on only his night vision, which worked about as well as a human's. "Lance?" he called again, turning every way he could in the water.

Still nothing, and Keith swam under and around the boat. He relaxed a little when he found Pidge and Hunk, deadly silent and as low in the water on the far side of the boat as they could get, hidden in the shadows. He popped up next to them and gave them a helpless look, one they both read and responded negatively to.

Before he left, he grasped Pidge's arm and leaned in, whispering as quietly as he could. "Mariana is under the overturned boat. You could probably get there underwater without being seen."

She nodded. "My uncle?"

"Still on board, last I saw."

Pidge nodded again and Keith dove back underwater, seeing the two friends start moving around the boat as he left. How long had it been since he had gone overboard? One minute? Two? Where the _hell_ was Lance?

He swam further away from the boat, wondering if Lance had swum out and away once he hit the water, but the moment the floodlights came back on Keith knew he was screwed. A bullet pierced the water directly next to him and he flinched, surfacing and ducking out of the light.

The remaining members of the crew had taken the brief lack of teenagers attacking them and had turned to capture Coran, who was now bound hand and most likely foot on board the ship, a gag around his mouth and a scowl set on his face. Keith felt a pain at realizing he had gotten the man into this.

"Give up the merman, and we let the doctor go!" called out one of the men.

Keith glanced over at Pidge and Hunk, who had made their way safely to Mariana and had frozen in their attempts to turn the boat back over. He could see Pidge staring anxiously up at her uncle, who was shaking his head violently.

Still no Lance.

"Do it _now,_ or the old man eats it!"

As if to prove the point, a gun was lifted to Coran's head. Pidge's whimper echoed across the water, but when Keith started to move out of the shadow she shot him the nastiest look he had ever seen from her. Keith bit his lip and shook his head, struggling to stay calm.

Lance was gone, Coran was in trouble, and he really had no choice.

"Let him go!"

It came out more feebly than he intended for it to, so he shouted it again, moving back into the light and stroking with his arms to get back to the boat, his tail throbbing in pain under him. "I'm right here!"

"Keith, I _swear-!"_

He shot Pidge a glare that shut her up instantly and pointed to Coran. "You let him go. But I can't get back on the boat alone."

When the net came down and Coran was shoved overboard, still bound hand and foot, Keith could feel the oncoming panic attack in the back of his throat. He was vaguely aware of Mariana diving for Coran, bringing him to the surface and pulling the gag away, but all of it flooded from his brain as the net closed around him and tore him from the currents. Seawater and blood from his reopened injury slid from his tail and back into the ocean with little noise, and he clutched at the ropes hard enough to make his skin burn.

His heart was going at seventy flicks a minute, eyes clamped shut and tail pounding with agony, with fire. His fingers dug deeper into his skin and the rope and he shuddered, leaning his head against the net. He could hear Hunk and Pidge yelling up at the men, could hear Coran's shouts of protest, even Mariana's, but he tuned them out, tuned them all out.

"You will LET GO of that MERMAN!"

The accented words rang clearly in the night air, and for a moment Keith sat frozen, unable to believe what he was hearing. But no, when he opened his eyes, there was Princess Allura, eyes ablaze and hands clamped firmly around a set of bows and arrows, something the palace guard had found worked better when the enemy was out of the water and above them. With one easy flick of her wrist and the whistle of a shaft, an arrow had slipped through the rope holding Keith up and he was sent tumbling back into the water.

It was only then that Keith realized the _entire_ Altean army was there, armed with quivers and bows and malice in their eyes. Two of them came over and pulled the net away, taking it to be destroyed. He backed away and let them do their thing, still looking around frantically for Lance.

Allura found him in moments, eyes relieved and her posture tense, still glancing between him and the men on the ship. "Keith, I'm glad you're all right."

Keith couldn't help stammering over his words. "L-Lance. He…he was…he _helped_ me, your majesty, I need you to believe me, and he went overboard with me but I can't _find_ him, and he's human and he can't hold his breath that long and I need help, please, you have to-"

"Keith."

She said it warmly, eyes studying him with caution, and turned, looking back over her shoulder. Keith felt his breath hitch the moment Shiro came into view, cradling a very unconscious Lance in his arms. Ignoring all manners, Keith flew past the princess and to his brother, reaching a shaking hand out and settling it on Lance's cheek. "Is he-?"

"He's alive," Shiro confirmed, his voice tight. "We were already on the way up here, and he was drifting. He's hurt, so it didn't feel right to let him drown."

Keith swallowed hard and stroked his thumb tenderly over Lance's skin, shivering at how cold it was before remembering he had an audience. He looked back up at his brother pleadingly, glancing over at Hunk and the others to find that they were surrounded by guards. "Please," he whispered. "None of them hurt me. They're the only reason I'm _alive,_ Shiro."

Shiro hesitated, looking to Allura, and she frowned, her gaze falling on the small cluster of humans surrounding the overturned boat. "Come," she said softly, ignoring the sounds of her guards finishing up the fight and starting to tear the boat apart, as was tradition. The crew had been tossed into the life rafts, guarded by several of the meaner looking sentries. 

She led the way to the boat, everyone next to it shrinking at her imposing figure. All except Mariana, who spotted Lance in Shiro's grasp and cried out, pushing away from the boat and freezing when everyone's gaze turned to her. "He…he's my brother," she tried feebly, treading water and backing away again.

Allura nodded once and looked at the guards. "Turn their boat over."

They did it in an instant and Hunk clambered in first, reaching his arms out silently for Lance. Shiro handed the unconscious surfer over and Hunk took him gingerly, settling him onto one of the seats and letting his friends head rest against the side. He leaned over the boat and pulled Pidge and Mariana in at the same time, Coran climbing in on his own to balance the other side of the boat. Allura waited until they were situated before speaking again. "It has come to my attention that you have all helped one of my subjects, saved his life. For that, I thank you."

They could sense a "but" coming, all of them holding their breaths and staring at them. Allura pursed her lips. "But I can't allow for any more interaction between our worlds. We will take Keith home and continue his healing process there."

He had known it was going to happen, but Keith still flinched and wrapped his arms tightly around himself, ducking his head. There was silence for a long moment, broken only by the sounds of merpeople in the background calling out orders to each other.

To everyone's surprise, it was Mariana who spoke up. "No."

Allura's eyes flashed dangerously and she looked at the girl. "Pardon?"

Mariana swallowed, looking terrified, and Keith didn't blame her; she had discovered less than twenty minutes ago that merpeople existed, and now she was facing down royalty. She stood firm though, hands trembling at her sides. "No," she repeated, her voice a little louder. "Look, your majesty, ma'am…I don't…I don't _know_ Keith. But I saw the way he was looking for my brother, I've seen how happy Lance has been this last week or two, and I don't think…"

She paused, glancing down at Keith and giving him a small smile, an approving smile, and that made Keith more grateful than he could ever say. "I don't think," she continued, "that you should be separated from someone who makes you happy."

Allura frowned. "Be that as it may," she said, her voice more controlled, "we cannot continue to risk ourselves above the surface. You've seen what happens when humans and mers interact."

"With all due respect, Princess," Coran started, eyebrows furrowing, "the only reason he was captured at all was because Lance attempted to get him home without further injuring him."

"Not a word, Coran," Allura snapped, glaring at the man.

There was silence for a moment, and then Pidge virtually exploded. "You _KNOW_ her?!" she shrieked, looking between her uncle and the mermaid looming over them.

Keith was just as surprised as Pidge, and Shiro looked equally startled. Coran coughed and ducked his head, staying respectfully silent, and all heads turned towards royalty. Allura studied the man thoughtfully before speaking.

"Many years ago, before most of you were born, when I was very young, my father and mother had an alliance with a few select humans," she started, words flowing calmly over the group. "Coran was one such human; he assisted one of our young mermaids with a broken fin, and we took him into our confidence."

Shiro swallowed, and Keith could tell by the way he sped up his tail that he was trying not to shout. "Why?"

"This was before your parents, you must understand," Allura promised them. "They were…friendlier times, we trusted some who were able to help. Coran was…"

She trailed off and studied the older man, a fond look in her eyes. "Kind to me. Treated me like a daughter, or perhaps a niece. When my parents died in battle, he helped me, taught me what my father had told him and shared with us how to best avoid the darker side of humanity."

She looked away from Coran and drew her hands up her arms, clutching her shoulders. It was the first time Keith could ever recall seeing her vulnerable. "That darker side…you know what happened, Shiro," she murmured. "You know the fishing vessel that took you and your parents, the men who…"

Allura's eyes shifted to Shiro's prosthetic and she shook her head. "I cut it off with Coran and the few others the day we got you back. I didn't realize…"

Coran raised a bushy eyebrow, a gentle smile on his face. "What, that I would continue to look out for you? Why wouldn't I?"

"Coran saved me!" Keith blurted out suddenly. "Twice! The…the first time, I did get caught by a boat. And…and he let me go, but that's how I got hurt, because we were fighting off the other guys. And then when I got infected, he helped me then too."

Allura hummed in the back of her throat and looked over the grouping of humans in front of her. "Very well," she murmured.

"Princess!"

She held up a hand and glared at Shiro, making him whither under her gaze. "I will allow Keith to stay until…Lance, was it? Until he wakes, so that he can properly say goodbye. Shiro, you will accompany them to shore while I stay here and tend to the rest of the soldiers."

Shiro gritted his teeth but nodded, waiting silently as Hunk started the motor of the boat and turned the vessel in the direction of Lance's home. Keith hitched an arm over the edge of the boat, tail aching, and gave Pidge a thankful smile when she took his hand tightly in hers to hold him there. Though Shiro shot him a frown, he grabbed the other side of the boat, knowing it would get him back to shore faster than he himself could move.

The ride was silent, Hunk keeping a steady hand on the rudder, Mariana stroking Lance's hair absentmindedly, and Pidge gripping Keith's hand hard enough to make it hurt. He didn't stop her though, knew how mad and concerned she was with her uncle, for Lance, for him even.

Hunk let the motor die as they reached the dock, and Coran hopped out to tie it up before turning and taking the still unconscious Lance from Hunk's arms. Keith let go of Pidge's hand and dropped back into the water, flicking his way over to the shallower shore water and pushing himself up onto the sand as much as he could while Coran laid out Lance's body in the wavering surf. He gave Keith's tail a once over, murmured that it would heal on it's own, and moved a little ways up the beach to give everyone privacy.

Pidge sat down next to him, her knees curled up under her chin. Mariana dropped down a little ways away and, after a moment of contemplation, Hunk went to sit next to her. They started talking in soft voices, quiet enough that no one could hear what was being said. Keith had a couple of guesses as to the topic, though.

Shiro stayed in the water, eyes roving the beach warily, and while part of Keith understood his concern, the other part of him wanted to smack his brother, wanted him to realize that not all humans were terrible people. He couldn't understand why he refused to change his mind, even after everything he had gone through.

Lance shivered under his fingers and Keith was on him in seconds, crawling up so that his body aligned with Lance's, tail fins curling delicately over Lance's ankles and hand reaching up to hover over his jawline. "Lance?"

No answer, and Keith sighed, the elbow crooked under him trembling from the strain of holding himself up. He looked up at Pidge helplessly and the girl shrugged, eyes sad behind her water speckled glasses.

Fingers curled around his, warm and gentle, and Keith whipped his head around to stare at Lance as the young man brought the palm of Keith's hand to his lips, pressing the softest of kisses to his skin. "Hey, loser."

Keith almost slapped him then and there, tears welling up in his eyes. "Don't _scare_ me like that, you little shit."

Lance gave him a weak smile and hummed in the back of his throat, leaning his cheek into Keith's hand. "M'sorry."

His eyes turned from Keith to Shiro, now watching Lance like a hawk, and his smile vanished. "You have to go, don't you?"

Keith swallowed, breath hitching and tears catching in the back of his throat. "Yeah."

His voice cracked and he shuddered, dragging Lance's hand to his mouth and pressing against it, ignoring the tears streaking down his cheeks. "I…I was allowed to say goodbye."

Lance managed a nod and struggled to push himself up off the sand, arms wavering under him. Within seconds Pidge was there, steadying hands at her friend's back and eyes damp. Keith gave her a grateful smile and sat up, waiting for Lance to get steady before he pressed his hands to his cheeks. "I'll be here," he promised in a low voice. "There's no way I'm leaving…not you."

He glanced back at Pidge and then over at Hunk with a fond smile. "Not any of you. And they can't take that from me."

Lance buried his face into the crook of Keith's neck and shoulder, body trembling as he clutched at Keith's back. Keith felt his breath catch and he hugged back, pushing Lance away just enough so that he could kiss him, long and hard and desperately, salty tears mixing with ocean water and making them both gasp for air.

"It's time to go, Keith."

Shiro's voice was pained, though Keith couldn't determine if it was from seeing him kiss a human or because he felt bad about separating them. Either way, he pulled back and pressed his forehead to Lance's, thumbs stroking the water from his cheeks. "You saved my life," he murmured against his lips. "I won't forget that."

Lance nodded, gaze holding Keith's for as long as possible as he was pulled away by Shiro, dragged into the depths of the ocean.

When he finally vanished, Lance collapsed into Pidge's grasp and sobbed.


	13. To Understand

_When he finally vanished, Lance collapsed into Pidge's grasp and sobbed._

~~~~~

The swim back was silent, Keith and Shiro falling behind the rest of the Altean army. The princess shot them both a comforting look and swam on ahead with her subjects. Several were missing, and Keith knew they were doing something about Coran's crew, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Fists at his sides, hips and fins controlling his forced movements, he kept going, kept swimming. He refused to let Shiro touch him after they had left, and now his sibling hovered around him nervously, eyes forward but body tensed in Keith's general direction, like he was waiting for an outburst.

Keith wasn't going to give it to him.

He had missed Shiro, missed him so much while he had been injured, but now? He was pissed off. Pissed that his brother was so close minded, so against change, against humans. Lance and the others had saved his life, but Shiro saw them as nothing more than criminals.

_Then why did he keep Lance from drowning?_

Keith shook off the thought and swallowed, the lump in his throat sinking to his chest and holding firm there.

"Keith, I-"

"Don't," he managed, shutting his eyes and turning his head away, arms lifting to wrap around himself. "Just don't, Shiro."

Shiro frowned and flicked into Keith's path, eyebrows narrowed and arms crossed. "Don't even start with me, Keith. I was _worried._ You were gone for two weeks, Keith, I didn't know if you were dead or alive or injured or if you had run away or what, so don't you _dare_ act like you're the only one hurting. You were up there with those…with those _humans,_ " he spat, "and our parents were killed by one of them! So excuse me for wanting to get you out of there!"

"Oh, fuck you!" Keith snapped, flinging his arms out and sending a flurry of bubbles to the surface. "FUCK. YOU. God, I _missed_ you, Shiro, and I was so fucking excited to see you again, you have _no idea_. And they never _once_ did anything to hurt me, they _helped_ me, for kelps sake, and you butt in acting like every single fucking human is a menace. _Newsflash,_ you asshole, even our Princess fraternized with the human world!"

He swallowed, ducking his head and struggling to keep from just turning around and going back. "I missed you," he choked out again, body slowly losing the will to fight. "And you're just…you're here hating a guy that did nothing but care about me."

Shiro reached out hesitantly and Keith let him lay a hand on his shoulder, refusing to meet his gaze. "Keith, I'm sorry. I just…you know it could never work. You're both too different."

Keith wrenched himself away, nose wrinkling and lips curling into a sneer. "You think I don't know that? You think I don't realize how different we are? God, how could I _not?"_

His voice dropped and he pushed past Shiro, heart thudding in his chest and eyes burning. "Doesn't mean I didn't want to try."

~~~~~

"Lance?"

Mariana hesitated outside his door, looking back at Hunk. He nodded to her silently, slipping down the stairs to join Coran and Pidge in the kitchen. Mariana had a feeling that her mother was definitely awake, but she hadn't yet come busting into the hall, so she took her time, tapping the door again. "Lance, I'm…"

She bit her lip, eyebrows furrowing, and slumped against the door, forehead resting on the frame and hands pressing to the wood. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

The doorknob clicked and she backed up just in time to keep from falling inwards. Lance stood there, eyes bright red and nose matching, and she slumped. "It's not your fault," he mumbled.

A thin smile graced her face. "Knew that would get you out of your room," she joked feebly.

Lance swallowed and twisted away, leaving the door open for Mariana to follow him inside. She shut it softly behind her, leaning back against it and watching as her brother sat down on his bed, tracing his fingers over and around each other. "I'm sorry," she said again. "I didn't know-"

"I know," Lance promised, his voice hollow. "it's okay."

She shuffled towards him, chewing on the inside of her cheek. "Do you need-?"

"Yeah."

He crushed her into a hug before she could finish asking, fingers gripping at her back and forehead pressed to her scalp. Mariana pulled him close, pressing her face into his chest and rubbing his back soothingly as he sobbed, body trembling with the effort of standing upright after such an exhausting night. She curled her fingers into his shirt and shut her eyes, trying to think of some way to get him to feel better.

"Leave it to you to fall for a fish," she muttered into his shirt.

Lance barked out a laugh and his fingers threaded through her hair, tangled and knotted from being out on the ocean. "I know, right?" he grumbled. "Stupid me."

Mariana shook her head. "Nah," she said. "Kinda romantic, in a Romeo and Juliet kinda way."

"They both die at the end."

"Good thing this isn't the end then, right?"

Lance chuckled softly and pushed her away, ruffling her hair fondly and giving her a small smile. "Thanks, Mari. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

"You tried to, didn't you?" she guessed, recalling a few nights ago. "The other night, when you were going to take me night surfing?"

Lance nodded. "Yeah. I just…I forgot to ask him. If it would be okay."

His gaze dropped and Mariana squeezed his arm gently. "That's okay. What do you want to do now?"

Lance shrugged halfheartedly. "Sleep, I think. I need to get Coran to change this though," he noted, gesturing to his upper arm. "And then I just…want to go to bed."

He slumped out of the room dejectedly, leaving Mariana to sigh and move out to the hallway, leaning over the railing and peering down into the kitchen. A movement at her right alerted her to her mother, who was leaning next to her and watching silently as Lance got Coran to change his bandaging. "Do I want to know?" the woman asked sleepily.

Mariana pursed her lips and ducked her head. "Probably not," she admitted. "Are we in trouble?"

Her mother studied her thoughtfully before wrapping an arm around her and tugging her close. "Not right now," she murmured. "You two look like you've been through a bit. I'll let you sleep. We'll speak in the morning, mm?"

Mariana hummed in agreement and hugged her mother tightly, tears stinging at her eyes. "I'm sorry, mama."

"It's okay, baby. Get some rest."

She kissed her on the forehead, squeezed her chin tenderly, and disappeared back into her room. Mariana swallowed and looked back to Lance, who was leaning against the doorframe watching Pidge and Coran leave. Hunk stood behind him, a firm rock, hand on his upper back, and he guided him back up the stairs. They nodded to Mariana as they passed and she tiptoed back to her room, shutting the door silently behind her before flopping back into bed and letting the evening sink in.

Her brother was in love with a merman.

A harsh laugh spilled from her lips and Mariana dragged her hands down her face. How had her life gotten so nuts? Literally a day ago she was irritated because she thought that Lance didn't want to be around her anymore, now she was discovering that he was just trying to keep an earth shattering secret.

She groaned and rolled over, staring out the window and over the trees that blocked her vision of the ocean.

Mariana wasn't quite sure how to make Lance feel better, if she even could, but she was sure as hell going to try.

~~~~~

Coran leaned out over the railing of the observatory at the aquarium, one ankle crossed behind him and his hair tickling at his face from the calming ocean breeze. Pidge was asleep in the lab behind him, curled up on a sofa with an old blanket tossed over her torso and a sweatshirt bunched up under her head. She hadn't wanted to go home, so he had given his sister a call and let her know that she was with him.

A sigh escaped his throat and he ducked his head, shifting on his heels. He blamed himself, honestly. If his crew hadn't gone out that night, they never would have found Keith, never would have injured him, and he never would have gone to the beach for help and Lance and the other kids never would have-

"Blaming yourself again, I see. Some things never change, do they?"

He lifted his head ever so slightly to smile down at Allura as she leaned against the docks. He held up a finger and vanished inside, appearing again a moment later outside with a windbreaker on and a thermos in his hands. His footsteps were light against the dock and he didn't hesitate to sit down next to the princess, legs settled comfortably under him as she yanked herself fully onto the wood. She tugged her cape out from under her and draped it over her shoulders against the chill of the night air.

Coran was well aware of the two guards a little ways away, so he kept his hands around his thermos, eyes on the stars. "Didn't believe I would see you after this," he commented.

Allura chuckled, tugging her cape around her shoulders a little more tightly. "I did not think I would come," she admitted, fingers clenching at the fabric. "But I felt it necessary we talk."

"Probably a good idea."

She hummed and ducked her head, startlingly white hair falling around brown shoulders and pink silk, tail flicking halfheartedly at the water. "Were you sincere? About what happened to Keith?"

Coran scoffed. "Of course, Allura. You know me. You know I would never hurt anyone. My men…they've been dealt with?"

She nodded. "All but the one Keith called Thace. We released him."

"Good," Coran sighed. "He had nothing to do with the first capture."

"May I ask," Allura started, "if these men captured Keith the first time, why did you go out with them again?"

Coran winced, having known that was coming. "They um…they threatened me. Pidge, especially. She comes along with us fairly often, knows all of them, and I couldn't allow…I didn't think we would actually find Lance and Keith on the water, otherwise I would have warned them. The crew tied me up the moment they spotted them. Thace played along so as to avoid the same fate."

A soft sound of understanding came from his left, and Allura reached out, settling gentle fingers on Coran's wrist. The merpeople in the water stiffened but didn't move, and Coran forced himself not to react. "And you believe that the children-Lance-truly cared about him?"

He glanced at her, a sad smile on his face. "I do, Princess. I have never seen these kids so worried about someone, save for each other. Lance really does, I believe, care about Keith. In a romantic sense, I mean."

"I know what you mean," Allura sighed, drawing back and returning her hand to her cape. She lifted her eyes to the sky as well, tracing the constellations thoughtfully. "Do you think perhaps…we could start up our old arrangement? With you assisting me and my subjects in the affairs of humans?"

Coran ducked his head, trying to hide his smile. "Of course, Princess. So long as you do not hesitate to come to me if anyone is injured. Please, let them know that I will help. And Lance, his sister…that cove, where Keith washed up. They'd be more than willing to-"

"Uncle Coran?"

The adults turned to find Pidge there, flip flops on her feet and a too large jacket draped over her body, a small frown on her face as she glanced back and forth between the two. "Pidge, are you all right?" Coran asked, twisting around.

"I'm fine…what's going on? Why are you here?"

The question was directed at Allura, harshly, and the guards in the water jerked forwards. Allura held up a hand to stop them. "No," she said firmly. "She did not mean any harm by it."

Glancing back at Pidge, her body softened. "I wanted to make amends with your uncle. With…with the humans. We've gone too long fearing them, hiding from them, and it cost us tonight. I do not like hiding from the good humans, and I know you miss Keith."

"Not as much as Lance," Pidge grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away.

Allura pressed her lips together and reached a hand out, delicate, beckoning, and waited patiently until Pidge stepped forwards and took it. Her thumb rubbed over Pidge's knuckles and she smiled. "I am going to speak with Shiro," she promised. "Explain that things are not always what they seem to be. I don't know that it will help, but I will try. I hope that perhaps he will understand, stop being so protective. But you must understand, he has been through much with humans."

"So has Keith," Pidge pointed out, staring down at their joined hands.

Allura nodded. "I know. They have very different experiences. We will see. But please know that I am incredibly grateful to you and your friends. You have our support. _My_ support."

She squeezed Pidge's hand and dropped it, letting the cape fall back down to its proper resting place and shimmying back into the water with more grace than should have been possible. She appeared again, a little further away, and Pidge moved to stand next to Coran's shoulder. "I will do my best," Allura called softly. "And Coran, I will return, with ideas on how we can further our communications."

She tilted her head at them respectfully and vanished, the guards following, and Pidge turned to look at her uncle. "Do you think she means it?"

Coran cocked his head and stared over the water. "I think she does," he determined. "She's a good kid, wants nothing more than to protect her people, her family, her friends. Kinda like you, I suppose."

He looked up at Pidge with a wry smile and she snorted, scuffing a foot on the dock and shaking her head. "Okay. Okay, good. Cause I still have a lot of questions for them."

Coran stroked his mustache, twirling the ends and lifting an eyebrow. "You know, I do have several medical journals that I kept while our agreement was in arrangement. I could-"

Pidge was already halfway back to the aquarium. "What are you waiting for, let's go!"

Coran chuckled and pushed himself to his feet, dusting off his pants and following his niece with a smile on his face.

~~~~~

"Shiro? May I speak with you?"

Shiro turned from his position on the watch tower, eyes weary, and bowed to Allura. "Of course, Princess. What can I do for you?"

"You may stop with the formalities," Allura chuckled. "I'm not here on business, per se."

Shiro straightened up and settled his sword in the hilt on his hip, lacing his hands together behind his back and flicking his tail nervously. "What are you here for, then?"

Allura settled against the tower, pressing her hands together in front of her lips. "How is Keith?" she asked sincerely.

"Tired," Shiro said. "He's been asleep since we got home this morning. I have a guard on the house to make sure no one disturbs him."

"And so that he doesn't try to escape?"

Shiro flinched and glanced away, fins flipping faster. "I-"

Allura held up a hand and he clamped his mouth shut. "Shiro, I understand your concern. But…I plan to implement the human-mer contract that my father once had in place. Coran has discussed it with me, and we think it is high time that we stop cowering below the surface."

Shiro's head shot up and he looked at her helplessly. "Princess, humans-!"

"Saved your brother's life," Allura snapped, her usually calm demeanor slipping. "Keith would be dead if not for humans, and we both know it. I also know that not all humans are cruel to things they don't understand. That is clear to me, clear to your brother, and clear to the vast majority of the people in this kingdom. I am not asking your permission, Shiro. I merely wanted to tell you first, because I…"

She huffed and slumped against the wall again, crown tilting precariously on her head. "I think it would be best for Keith if you were to allow him to see his friends again. You know he doesn't have much here aside from you."

Shiro licked his lips but didn't argue, fingers tightening on the hilt of his sword as he glared out over open ocean. Allura continued. "I am not suggesting we reveal ourselves to all humans, merely to those we feel can be trusted. And that starts with Coran, and his niece, and those other three, including the one your brother seems to have fallen for."

Shiro nodded curtly and turned his back on the princess, something that was seen as the utmost disrespect of royalty in the kingdom. Allura clenched her jaw but didn't comment on it, instead floating upright and backing towards the door. "I know you are angry," she murmured. "And I know you are scared. But you need to speak with Keith. You are relieved of duty for the rest of the afternoon."

Shiro's shoulders hunched and he swam from the tower, away from the princess, dropping his things in the guard's room and then swimming for home. He lifted his prosthetic to his face as he moved, outlining the familiar curves and bumps with ease and a bit of apprehension. He knew Allura was right. Knew they couldn't keep hiding. Knew Keith wouldn't stay forever.

He swam over the rise to his home and nodded to the guard, watching them leave before ducking inside and curling around the corners until he reached Keith's room. He wasn't surprised to find the mer curled up against the headboard of his bed, arms wrapped around his tail and hair drifting across his face. One finger was tracing over the scar on his scales, the blemish almost unnoticeable against the ruby color of his fins.

"Come to talk some more sense into me?" Keith asked, no menace in his voice, merely resignation.

Shiro winced, glancing to the side and rubbing the back of his neck. He traced his gaze over Keith's form again, the way the boy hunched into himself, the dejected turn of his lips, and he sighed, swimming over and sinking down onto the bed next to him. He settled his hands against his tail, tracing his normal thumb over his prosthetic one, and licked his lips nervously. "Tell me about Lance."

Keith's head turned so quickly that Shiro was certain he heard a crack. "What?"

Shiro peeked up at his brother, trying for a smile. "Tell me about the human who saved you."


	14. To Accept

_Shiro peeked up at his brother, trying for a smile. "Tell me about the human who saved you."_

~~~~~

"Want to tell me what's been going on?"

Lance glanced up at his mother from where he had been tracing his fingers around the sun stones on the porch. She stood in a non-threatening way, hands tucked comfortably in her short pockets and dark hair braided and draped over one shoulder, her head tilted thoughtfully. Lance's hands flattened against the warm rock, dusting over oranges and yellows, and his shoulders slumped. "You wouldn't believe me."

She snorted, settling down across from him and lifting his hands in hers. "I've seen a lot in my time, _mijito._ There isn't much I wouldn't believe. I don't want to punish you, baby," she murmured, lifting his knuckles to her mouth and pressing a gentle kiss to them. "But if you don't tell me what's been going on, I'll have no choice."

Lance swallowed and ducked his head, pulling his hands away and wrapping his arms around himself. "Um…there's this…there's this guy."

A small smile slid across his mother's face. "Is there now?"

His lips twitched. "Yeah. Except like…his brother doesn't like me. And I…he…"

It came spilling out in a flurry, who Keith was, _what_ Keith was, his injuries, Coran, the princess, Lance's bullet wound, Mariana's involvement, everything. He refused to look at her, instead staring down at the twisting sun under his body, the colors giving him courage to keep going. When he stopped there was silence, and when he finally forced himself to glance up at her she was staring at him, a soft gaze in her eyes and a small smile on her face. "What?" he demanded.

She chuckled and lifted a hand, swiping at a tear he hadn't felt on his face. "Is that all?"

Lance gazed at her for a long moment. "So you…you believe me?"

His voice was incredulous, eyebrows furrowed, a her smile turned mischievous. "Lance, I've been living along the ocean since I was born. You think I wouldn't see things that were out of the ordinary?"

Lance shook his head in disbelief and surged towards her, burying his face into her shoulder and clinging to her back. "I'm sorry I lied to you, Mama," he muttered. "Don't punish Mariana though. She didn't know."

She rubbed his back soothingly. "Neither of you are being punished," she decided. "You were both just trying to help."

He nodded. "I don't know if he…if he's coming back. And I want him to."

His voice cracked and his mother tightened her hold, stroking his hair and humming softly under her breath. "I'm sorry, baby. Be patient, mm? You never know. And if he doesn't…"

She pulled back and squeezed his biceps gently, lifting a hand to brush away the rest of the tear marks on his face. "If he doesn't come back, we'll all be here. Okay?"

Lance shivered and leaned into her touch, shutting his eyes for a moment and trying to push down the overwhelming feeling of despair that was aching in his chest. "Okay. Okay."

"Take your mind off of it for a bit, okay honey?"

"Okay."

~~~~~

Lance stood silently at the edge of the water, board tucked under his non-injured arm and gaze caressing the ocean's dark horizon. The waves that lapped at his heels chilled him, calmed him, pulled the sand from under and around his feet. He stayed firm in his stance, struggling for the first time with the idea of going in alone.

Pidge, Hunk, and Mariana were silent behind him, each of them leaning against the rock barrier on the beach. Mariana's surfboard sat in the sand at her side, unused, and Lance planned to keep it that way for now. He needed this, needed his moment alone, needed to breathe. They knew that.

He stepped in slowly, water washing over his ankles and then up his calves, submerging his body in the salty caress of the sea. He stood for another moment, waist deep, and then set his board against the surface, lights flickering on automatically and illuminating the water under him. Lance barely paused before climbing on, upper left arm protesting as he started to paddle against the surf. He kept his eyes on the horizon, forcing himself not to look over at the unoccupied cave, and kept moving, kept pushing, kept going until he couldn't breathe for how hard he was sobbing.

Lance sat up on the board and dragged a leg out of the water, bringing it up to his chin so that he was able to rest his elbow on his knee and dig his fingers into his hair. The tears that slipped over his cheeks were warm compared to the ocean, and his chest burned from the effort of trying to stay calm.

His fingers tightened their grip and he glanced back at shore, at his sister and friends, and then back at the horizon. Part of Lance wanted to keep going, wanted to keep stroking until he was too tired to keep moving and was in the middle of nowhere. The rest of him knew that was stupid, that he couldn't do that, and that was the part of him that made him turn the board around even without the sighting of a wave.

He leaned back down, resting his forehead on his board for just a moment and letting the current push him back, a hand trailing in the water as he moved. He took a shaky breath, lifted his arm, and stroked down once.

And was promptly pulled into the ocean.

The surprise of hitting the water was all that entered Lance's brain at first, the tell-tale tug of the tether on his ankle telling him that yes, he had indeed fallen. Or rather, he had been yanked.

He spun, hair crossing his vision and the blue light from his board filtering through the dark waves to find Keith floating there, a tentative smile on his face and his arms crossed over his body. Lance realized with a start that he wasn't dreaming and he took a moment, his lungs burning, to caress his eyes over his form, over his glinting scales and the way his smile wavered.

And then Lance surged forwards, pushing against the water and grabbing Keith by the cheeks, yanking him towards him in a literally breathless kiss, all air escaping him as he worked his lips with Keith's.

Keith gently pulled him above the water, letting Lance catch his breath, and wrapped his arms tightly around his neck, fins tickling at Lance's calves as they floated alongside Lance's board, the lights reflecting off the water. "Hey."

Lance swallowed hard, certain his eyes were bright red, and gave Keith a shaky smile. "Hey. You…you came back."

Keith chuckled and tugged Lance even closer, if that was possible. Lance settled his arms around Keith's hips and his thumbs caressed the part of his body where his scales smoothed into skin. "Yeah," he murmured, pressing his forehead to Lance's. "I…talked to Shiro. Really talked to him."

He licked his lips nervously and glanced behind him, and Lance followed his gaze to find Shiro floating there, hesitantly, a curious look on his face. Keith gestured him over and Lance tried to pull away from him, tried to put some space between himself and Keith just in case Shiro didn't like that, but Keith held him firmly in place. He loosened his arms just enough so that they held Lance by the chest rather than the neck.

Shiro studied him for a moment, glancing between him and Keith, and then looked at Keith. "Can I…talk to Lance? Alone?"

Keith nodded, looking like he had expected that, and pressed a tender kiss to Lance's temple before ducking away and swimming for shore. Lance reached a hand out and fumbled for a moment before finding his board, settling an arm on it to keep from tiring too fast. "Look, I know…I know you don't like people," Lance started softly, keeping his gaze to the water and watching Shiro's pitch black tail sway back and forth. "But I…I mean…I would never do anything to hurt Keith, to hurt any of you, to _expose_ any of you, I-"

"Lance."

Lance glanced up to find Shiro watching him with an amused smile. The older man's gaze flickered to where Lance assumed Keith was and then back to Lance's face. "I know. I…"

He paused, lifting a hand from the water to rub it behind his head sheepishly. Lance got the feeling he didn't apologize to humans too often. "I was wrong," he finally admitted. "Keith…seems to really like you. All of you, but you especially. And after he told me the whole story…"

Shiro deflated a little and Lance tilted his head curiously. "What happened?" he asked softly. "To…to your arm, I mean?"

The glare he got was so withering that Lance wondered if he should have kept his mouth shut. But then Shiro sighed and looked away, body relaxing. "When…when my parents and I were captured, my parents attempted to get me free before them. Which…was how they died. They were killed for fighting back. I knew that I couldn't just _abandon_ Keith, so I kept quiet and the men that captured me..."

He shook his head and ran his prosthetic hand over his mouth. "When I tried to help my parents, tried to escape myself, the first time, before they were killed…there was a fight with the men. An accident. It was severed on impact, and the knife left me with an infection. I stopped fighting after that, but I was scared. Of humans. I didn't…I knew I couldn't…"

He looked back towards shore and Lance followed his gaze this time, a fond smile crossing his face. "Knew you couldn't let the same thing happen to Keith," he finished.

Shiro looked at him in startled surprise, and Lance chuckled, twisting to face Shiro again. "I care about him. Not as much as you, maybe," Lance admitted, "but that's to be expected."

The smile that Shiro gave him was worth everything he had gone through in the past twenty four hours, and Lance grinned back. "You um…want a ride to shore?" he asked, gesturing to his board.

Shiro gazed at Lance for a long moment, waves curling around them in silence, and then he shook his head. "Nah. I'm going to go back home. Tell Keith…tell him I love him, would you?"

Lance stared at him, pulling his body up onto his board and straddling it. "He'll come back, you know. He cares about you too much not to."

Shiro smiled again and nudged Lance's board towards the sandy beach, where they could clearly hear Hunk's laughter. "I know. But I also know he loves it here. So I don't expect him home immediately."

"He'll be okay," Lance promised, wrapping his arms around himself to fight off the chill of the evening. "I won't…I won't let anything happen to him."

Shiro nodded in acknowledgment and backed up, lips curling upwards. "I know you won't, Lance."

He vanished underwater and Lance let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding, turning his board around to stare at the shore. The current picked up under him and Lance glanced backwards in time to see the horizon break, to see the water rise and nudge forwards in the start of a wave, and Lance grinned, his heart thrumming in his chest.

He stroked for the beach, let the ocean lift him on its crest, and flew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue is up next.


	15. To Live

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I started this in one class with a professor, and wrote the vast majority of it in my Shakespeare class when I was supposed to be paying attention, so it seemed only fitting that I finish it in the Shakespeare class with the same professor I started it in.

_He stroked for the beach, let the ocean lift him on its crest, and flew._

~~~~~

Floorboards creaked under bare feet, the rocking and swaying of the vessel sending sand skittering across the wood with the smallest rustling sound. "What do you think?"

Keith, leaning against the floor from his trapdoor, water lapping the edges around him, gave a brilliant smile and looked over from where he had been gazing around the room. "It's great, Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez. Thanks."

The adults grinned down at him and Keith flushed under their gaze, leaning out further and peering around the corner at Pidge, who was busy helping Hunk set up the more mechanical aspects of the houseboat. "Pidge! What's the time?"

She glanced down at her watch and her tongue poked from her lips. "Five more minutes. Tell them to get their butts up here and recharge."

Keith chuckled and saluted with two fingers, dropping from the trapdoor and into the water below. He took a second to let his eyes adjust and spun in a circle, tail drifting lazily under him. His scar had faded entirely, leaving behind only a slightly uneven line of scales to show where the injury had been.

Lance hadn't been so lucky, and he now had a scar on his upper arm, but he wasn't mad about it. Said it made him look like a pirate or something.

When Keith swam into view, Lance glanced up from where he had been making some last adjustments to the boat and smiled warmly around the rebreather in his mouth. Keith shook his head and ducked over, curling around Lance's body and slipping his arms around his bare waist, one hand tracing the inking on his back.

"Pidge says it's time to come in and recharge," he said into the aid in Lance's ear, one that Hunk and Pidge had spent hours designing to filter out speech underwater. "Where's Mariana?"

Lance glanced about and gestured to the left, releasing his grip on the boat and pushing himself downwards, fingers sinking to tangle in Keith's hair. His free hand held onto a screwdriver, and Keith took it from him and tucked it into Lance's swim trunks, shaking his head. "You have to go get her. Come on."

His boyfriend smirked and pulled the rebreather out, pecking Keith's nose before dropping from his grasp and swimming over to where Mariana was screwing in her last panel, muscles straining to make the screw as tight as possible.

The houseboat had been repurposed and refurbished from the Sanchez's elderly neighbor, the one who owned the beach adjacent their cove. He had had the boat for years and had lost the ability to man it by himself, but had kept it in wonderful condition and, after hearing about Lance and Keith's…predicament…had given a soft smile, murmured something about knowing the feeling, and had given it to them for far less than Lance had been willing to pay.

With some sanding and several coats of paint, the inside and outside had looked as good as new. Hunk and Pidge had then proceeded to tear out specific sections of the lower deck's floor boards and fit them with trap doors and plexiglass, worked in such a way that opening the trap doors while on open water would not flood the boat or sink it. Keith didn't know the logistics, but it didn't really matter much to him.

The top floor, which led out onto the deck, had been refurbished to have more windows, all plexiglass for safety reasons, and with Coran's help, they had been able to run a series of clear piping up to the main deck and the inside of the top floor. Hoses running along the sides kept the water flowing, and the pipes opened up in three places: one on the main deck, and two inside the lower floor. Keith was able to swim comfortably through them and be pretty much anywhere on the boat, and Pidge had given it a shot as well (wearing flippers) to make sure that it worked for humans too. The only place it didn't lead was the engine room, which he didn't particularly want to get into anyway, so he wasn't bothered.

The boat was now parked at Lance's dock, and his entire family, plus Hunk, Pidge, and Coran, were all helping to bring in furniture to bolt down and decorations to make the place more homey.

Most of the lowest deck, formerly used for storage, had been flooded on purpose, carefully, and Keith had refurbished part of it into a bedroom with help from Pidge and Lance. Hunk had provided lighting to the room somehow, with lights that functioned underwater (he'd have to ask about that) and changed colors when he hit a certain button. A trapdoor led up from his bedroom ceiling and into what had become Lance's room.

No, his parents hadn't let Lance just completely abandon their summer home. But more nights than not, Lance slept curled up on the floor of his bedroom in the houseboat with his fingers dangling into the water of Keith's room, and it was honestly heartwarming to wake up to the sun shining through his porthole and see Lance sleeping above him.

Lance had one more year of school left, and Keith knew he did too, so they would both have to leave at the end of the summer and go back home. But Pidge and Hunk had both assured Keith that they were staying, seeing as they actually lived in town, and he was excited to be able to see them on the weekends.

Plus, with Coran and Allura having opened communications again, Keith had finally figured out what he wanted to do when he was done with school instead of following Shiro's tail flicks and becoming a member of the royal guard: he was going to join the human-mer collaboration group.

When he had told Lance that, the teen had nearly combusted on the spot, shrieking in delight and bouncing around in the surf on his toes. He had then proceeded to insist that Keith start early on forming communications.

And thus had begun the mildly awkward introductions to Lance's parents. Well, his mother, first. She had been remarkably calm about it, and the way her eyes sparkled (the exact color of Lance's, Keith noted) made the mer think that she had definitely had encounters with his people before. When he had asked, however, she had merely shrugged and then turned the conversation his way about school and Shiro.

After meeting Lance's father and getting approval from basically the entire family, it had been agreed upon to make it easier for Keith to hang around without having to sleep on the ground in the cave. Thus the houseboat happened, and now Pidge was setting up something called Wi-Fi for him to use whenever no one was there and he was bored. Whatever that was.

"Keith?"

He glanced up at Lance, noting that they were alone in the main room. Wet footprints indicated that Mariana had left the water and joined her parents above deck, and he and Lance were left alone in the trap door, which was the biggest one on the ship. It was probably large enough for four or five people to float comfortably, but they were pressed close together, elbows hooked onto the floor. "Hm?"

"You okay?" Lance asked, tilting his head. Seawater dripped into his eyes. "You look a little lost there."

Keith smiled and ducked his head, nodding. "Yeah," he promised, allowing his tail fins to entwine gently around Lance's ankles. The boy's breath hitched next to him. "Yeah, I'm okay. Just thinking."

"About?"

When he glanced up, Lance had a mischievous half smile on his face, and Keith splashed him indignantly. "Shut up."

Lance swung around to the front of Keith, keeping one hand on the floor and trapping him between his arms, biceps straining to keep him in one place. "Make me," he challenged.

Keith obliged, leaning forwards and capturing Lance's lower lip between his teeth, tugging back just enough that Lance was forced to float forwards or risk pulling away. His knees drifted against either side of Keith's tail and he lifted a hand, sliding it up and over Lance's chest and shoulders and letting it rest on the curve of his jaw, their hips bumping and Lance's hand releasing the side of the trap door in favor of curling around Keith's lower back.

"Ahem."

They burst apart, Lance sinking underwater with a yelp at the sudden movement. Keith pulled him up without even blinking, hand wrapped around his bicep and face burning bright red as he turned to look at Shiro, who had a shit eating smirk on his face. "Yes?" he managed to say through gritted teeth.

Lance huffed and sank purposefully up to his nose, eyebrows furrowed. Shiro laughed and shook his head. "Just wanted to know if there was anything else that needed to be done on the starboard side," he asked, handing over his screwdriver.

"Ask Pidge," Keith said, nodding towards the next room over. "She's the one who knows everything."

Shiro tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, glancing between the two of them. "Hands above the hips, you two."

He vanished, leaving Lance to choke on seawater and Keith to groan in mortification. "Why are we related?" he muttered.

Secretly, of course, he was grateful to his brother. After finally sitting down and hearing him out, and after the initial breathing room he gave Lance and Keith, he had come to the surface more and more often, finally meeting Pidge and Hunk properly, getting to know them, and he had admitted to Keith that he was wrong about a lot of things. He got along with the humans swimmingly, for lack of a better word, and had even had a couple suggestions for Pidge on how to make the houseboat more habitable for merpeople.

He had been the reason an underwater guest room was added to the other side of the boat, though it was going to be there to balance out Keith's bedroom anyway. He had just given Shiro the opportunity to customize it.

"Does your brother have any sense of privacy?" Lance asked.

"No more than your sister," Keith shot back, having been caught kissing Lance multiple times by Mariana.

"Touché."

Lance slid his hand down in the water and curled it around Keith's, squeezing gently and tilting his head. "Seriously though, you sure you're good?"

Keith twined his fingers through Lance's and ran his thumb over his knuckles. "I promise."

"What do you say we go top side, then?"

"Pidge's rebreather is dead," Keith pointed out, nodding to the rebreather that had been discarded on the edge of the trapdoor. She had amped them up to last 90 minutes, but it was still precarious at times.

Lance's eyes twinkled and he hoisted himself from the water, giving Keith a very nice view of his both his calves and torso. He smiled appreciatively and sank back in the water, already anticipating what Lance was going to say. "Race you."

"You're on."

Lance sprinted for the stairs and Keith dove for the pipes, shooting up them as quickly as possible and flipping through the curves to the top, popping his head out just as Lance burst out the door. He grinned and strolled over, hands in his pockets as he watched Keith slide himself out the top of the pipe and into the little seat that had been built into the railing.

The boat rocked under Lance's feet but he stayed firm, leaning against the rail next to Keith and staring out at the open water. The wind tosseled their hair and the sun beat down against their bare backs, and from the open windows below them they could hear Hunk, Pidge, Mariana, and Shiro chattering. Lance spotted his parents walking along the beach hand in hand and he smiled, latching his pinky with Keith's.

Keith glanced sideways at him, lifting an eyebrow. "Are _you_ okay?" he retaliated, a little breathless from his swim.

Lance hummed in the back of his throat, gazing out over the ocean and leaning into Keith's shoulder. "Yeah. Yeah, I am."

His eyes caressed the horizon, and after a moment of careful thought, he lifted his free hand and pointed. "There."

Keith followed his line of sight, frowning. "What?" He didn't see anything.

"Just hang on."

Within moments, the water that Lance was pointing to lifted and curled in on itself, rising and moving forwards, white crested teal crashing down and surging forwards in a wave. Keith laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. "I swear, the ocean just bends to your will sometimes."

Lance slid his gaze to Keith's with a lazy grin. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess it does."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want to take a second to thank everyone who reviewed and favorited and subscribed to this. It means a lot to me to know that people genuinely enjoy my work, and it makes me want to improve on it and keep writing. So thank you to everyone who has reviewed, and if you haven't: I don't bite, I love it when screaming happens, and I will gladly yell at you about klance either on here or on my tumblr, pftones3482. 
> 
> Thank you again!!


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